Staffline, the staffing and employability organisation, provided a trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2018.

The group said that despite a tight labour market, its recruitment division has “continued to perform strongly.”

During the six-month period, Staffline made a number of acquisitions which include: Endeavour Group Limited and its subsidiary Vital Recruitment Limited, UK Distribution Personnel Limited, and M&B Staff Services.

In the same six-month period, former CEO and non-executive director Andy Hogarth announced that he would step down as a non-executive director of Staffline Group plc with effect from 30 June 2018, in order to explore other business opportunities. Chris Pullen replaced Hogarth as CEO earlier in the year.

“Our size and scale allows us to meet growing customer demand, and the four acquisitions so far this year have improved our coverage in specific geographic areas,” Staffline said in its statement. “During the first six months of the year, the Customer Experience strategy has been rolled out giving unrivalled levels of insight into workers’ experiences on a site by site basis. This data will allow us to benefit both employee and customer retention through previously unseen feedback. We are confident that this will accelerate our consolidation of the market in which we already have a strong leadership position.”

“In PeoplePlus, the Group’s Training, Skills, and Well-Being services division, the transition away from the Work Programme contracts remains on track,” the group stated. “We are benefiting from our investment in the Apprenticeship Levy space and have made good progress delivering Fair Start Scotland, which launched in April. We continue to develop a strong pipeline across a number of areas, including devolved government and prison education.”

“As a result, we are pleased to confirm that we are trading in line with expectations and the Board remains confident of the group’s growth prospects,” the group stated. “The Board looks forward to providing a further update at the time of the Interim Results, which will be announced on Wednesday, 25 July 2018.

The group expects to provide a final pre-close trading update on Thursday, 3 January 2019.

As of last trade, Staffline traded at £978.67, up 4.89% on the day and 11.21% above the 52-week low of £880.00 set on 20 March 2018. Based on its current share price the company has a market value of £259.88 million.