UK recruitment firm Impellam Group (IPEL: LSE) reported revenue for the 26 weeks ending 1 July 2016 of £1,085 million, an increase of 30.5% compared with £831.6 million during the first half of 2015 boosted by acquisitions. Organic changes over the first half of 2015 were not announced.

Julia Robertson, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “I am pleased to report that we continue to make good progress against the 2016 strategic priorities outlined in our 2015 Annual Report. At the end of last year I stated that my major priorities for 2016 were people and cash. That has not changed and I am pleased to report that this focus together with the clarity of purpose around achieving our vision of being “the world’s most trusted staffing company’’ means that we can be trusted, even in these uncertain times.”

The company provided details on the performance of its managed services division. Overall spend under management increased 116% to £2,057.1 million.

Managed Services gross profit in the UK, Europe and Australiasia increased by 15.2% to £29.6 million (2015: £25.7 million). Operating profit increased to £9.6 million (2015: £8.5 million) with conversion of gross profit to operating profit of 32.4% compared to 33.1% in the same period last year. Lorien, which the company acquired in 2014, continues to perform well and has grown its Managed Service gross profit by 24.8% and EBITDA by 35.6% year on year.

Managed Services gross profit in the US increased by £13.9 million to £22.2 million (2015: £8.3 million) an increase of 155.9% after adjusting for currency movements. Operating profit increased to £5.7 million (2015: £0.6 million). Conversion of gross profit to operating profit improved substantially from 7.2% in 2015 to 25.7% in 2016. The increases were driven by the acquisition in late 2015 of Bartech. On a standalone like-for-like basis, adjusting for constant currency, Bartech Managed Services business has grown its gross profit by 14.5%.

Julia Robertson continued, “Our focus on Managed Services and Specialist Staffing aimed largely at the contingent workforce, where 90% of our gross profit is derived from temporary or contractor placements, puts us in a strong place both with customers seeking to build better businesses and with candidates who are looking for flexibility, a sense of purpose and employers who value their contribution.

“In North America, which is now under single leadership following the Bartech acquisition, our businesses are performing well, and the increased scale has helped to drive the conversion of gross profit to operating profit in line with UK levels. Our focus on driving synergy savings mean that there will be further full year benefits next year which will deliver further conversion improvement.”

“We are pleased with the progress we have made in Australia where we have increased the scale of our healthcare business, Medacs Global Group, and have seen accelerated growth on the back of investment in Comensura which is implementing 25 new Managed Service contracts and has a strong public and private sector pipeline.”

“The Group is concentrating on bedding in the 4 acquisitions made over the past two years, tuning into customers and candidates and focusing on cash collection with a view to reducing our net debt so that we are strongly positioned to take advantage of opportunities that might occur later in 2016 and during 2017. We have made good progress so far this year and net debt has reduced by £8.5 million from the year end to £109.7 million which is in line with our expectations.”

“The combination of the robustness of our Managed Service offering, geographic spread, concentration on the contingent workforce and the Global Medics and Bartech acquisitions has helped us to deliver an overall 35.9% improvement (£8.8 million) in EBITDA in H1 to £33.3 million.”

It was also announced that Darren Mee, Group Finance Director, will be stepping down with immediate effect and will leave the Company at the end of July 2016 in order to pursue other interests. He has been replaced by Alison Wilford, who was previously Group Financial Controller who joins the Board with immediate effect.

“Like many of our competitors, we have seen a softening in the permanent recruitment market in the UK since Q4 2015. Given the current social, economic and political uncertainties in the UK we do not expect this outlook to change. However, we expect our businesses to continue to perform well in our key markets and we are confident that our differentiated high retention strategy, our portfolio of market focused contingent worker Specialist Staffing businesses complemented by our high performing Managed Services businesses, will deliver results for the full year in line with management expectations.”

In trading today, Impellam Group PLC traded at £670.00, down 1.11% on the day and 9.84% above its 52-week low of £610.00, set on 27 June 2016. Based on its current share price the company has a market value of £343.59 million.