Sweden-based healthcare and education staffing firm NGS Group AB (NGS: SS) reported revenue yesterday for the fourth quarter ended 31 December 2021. Revenue jumped by 29.7% from the year-ago quarter.

Ingrid Nordlund, CEO, said, “The last quarter of the year shows sales growth of 30% and a doubling of operating profit compared with the corresponding quarter last year.”

“NGS's strong growth is largely due to the nursing staff who continue to be very successful, recruitment and interim services for specialists have also shown significant growth, as has the activities within the socionom (social work) staffing,” Nordlund said. “We see a continued increase in demand for various categories of highly specialised personnel in both the private and public sectors. The price pressure that became a consequence of the pandemic's entry has decreased and we are now working with healthy margins in the above areas.”

“The fourth quarter was characterised by sharp changes between business opportunities based on our customers' strong demand for qualified staff and the sick leave figures that affected both our own staff and our candidates,” Nordlund added.

Revenue by Geography

The company said that the fourth quarter was partly negatively affected due to Covid-19 as planned interventions in healthcare continued to be postponed to the future. However, nursing staff in Sweden reported a sharp increase in turnover but is burdened during the quarter with high sick pay costs due to the spread of Covid-19.

Nordlund said, “In healthcare, competition for staff, with high salary demand as a result, poses major challenges from a profitability perspective. As a result of Covid-19's rampant development during the quarter, we have been hit by high sick leave figures with associated costs for sick pay. These have had a negative effect on the operating margin. Medical staff still has challenges in terms of demand and margin levels, but quarter four was the quarter when we passed last year's sales.”

“The school staff shows, despite challenges with high sickness absence among our teaching staff, growth in this quarter as well,” Nordlund added. “With easing of restrictions during the current quarter of 2022, we look forward to greater availability for our staff and opportunities to meet the demand of our customers.”

Looking ahead, Nordlund said, “With positive future prospects, we have a strong focus on building our organisation with new recruitment of internal staff to meet the strong demand in the market. We at NGS are proud to have succeeded in achieving significant growth in terms of both sales and earnings, and look forward with confidence to 2022, when there are many indications that the conditions that affect our business will be further stabilised and improved.”

NGS Group also reported revenue for the full year increased by 14.7% to SEK 495.9 million (€46.75 million).

Shares in NGS Group closed yesterday at SEK 23.80 (€2.24), down 6.6% on the day. The company has a market cap of SEK 213.84 million (€20.16 million).