InterQuest Group (ITQ: LSE), the IT staffing firm, announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2016 reporting revenue of £73.8 million, a decrease of 9% over the same period last year. 

According to Chris Eldridge, Chief Executive Officer: “A root and branch reform has been necessary at our ECOM digital recruitment subsidiary which was acquired three years ago.

“During the first half of 2016 the Group’s contractor numbers were affected at ECOM by a reduction in demand resulting from changes in buying behaviour and sector. In early 2015, the Group also benefited from a spike in demand from the Public Sector which, following the General Election, was not replicated in the first half of 2016.”

Gary Ashworth, Chairman, commented: “The Group’s results for the first half of 2016 are below our expectations at the start of the year, particularly in the ECOM brand and the Public Sector division, and were impacted by uncertainty in the UK market leading up to the EU referendum. Following a period of change, the new management team is in place and focused on progressing the Group strategy of expanding our reach in the digital economy and the further development of the Group’s Solutions business. We have refocused or removed non-profitable elements of the business which we believe will help profits in the medium/long term.”

Looking forward Chris Eldridge said: “Although the first half of 2016 was challenging financially, this masks the significant operational progress we have made across a number of our key developmental objectives including growing our managed service business, enhancing the Group’s learning and development capability, improving retention and enabling increased levels of cross-selling. The leadership team looks forward to integrating the recent acquisition of Rees Draper Wright, benefiting from joint client development and building upon the platform in the US. We remain mindful of ongoing economic uncertainty and are taking steps to ensure that the Group is agile enough to respond to any changes that we may see in market conditions”.

Rees Draper Wright is a boutique executive search firm for blue chip clients operating out of London and New York and was acquired by InterQuest in August 2016.

The InterQuest Group is a specialist technology recruitment business. The Group focuses on both permanent and contract recruitment across a range of sectors, specifically in high growth functions including digital, information security, analytics, telecommunications, change management and other high value niche markets.

The Group is organised into five divisions including ECOM Recruitment Limited, which is a recruiter in the digital market space; Enterprise, which includes Recruitment Process Outsourcing services together with legacy client relationships with customers in the financial services and retail sectors; Public sector – focused on the public sector and not for profit markets; and Other, including the group sales function. As of last trade, InterQuest Group PLC (ITQ:LSE) traded at £78.00, down -15.9% on the day and down -43.8% on a year ago. Based on its current share price, the company has a market value of £21.55 million.