Professional services recruiter Hydrogen showed the City and the industry it's a company in a "sweet spot" as it revealed its interim results for the first six months of the year.

The company last week reported a 38% increase in pre-tax profit to £3.9m for the six months to 30 June 2007, compared to £2.8m the previous year.

Revenue was up 31% to £51m in the first six months of the year, compared with £39.1m in 2006.

"People are now seeing that we could be the next Michael Page or the next SThree," executive chairman Tim Smeaton told Recruiter.

"We are very pleased with the figures. We're pleased with the growth in profitability, it's all organic and we continue to monitor all the demographics for opportunities.

"We've seen growth in all areas and because none of our brands have more than 5% marketshare, there is plenty of room to grow."

The company has been successfully launching new specialist brands using its Incubator model, through one of its companies — Darwin Park.

The incubator brands start off with a small team launching into a sector and building it up, in a low-cost approach, before they are fully introduced to the market.

Smeaton said: "We aim to do three incubators a year. Currently we have one for procurement specialists and another for senior support staff into the legal sector.

"We will continue to invest in this approach because we believe this will drive our growth in 2009 and beyond as the brands reach maturity."

The model saw the successful launch of its ninth specialist brand, Eurisko, a specialist derivatives recruitment brand.

Hydrogen said its strongest growth was generated from its Target Partners, Commerce Partners and Law Professionals businesses.

Smeaton told Recruiter that the company also plans to continue to invest in its European ventures and will continue to grow its recently launched Australian office.