Recruitment giant Michael Page has announced that full-year profits have dropped by £10m.

Pre-tax profits were £23.5m, but tax liabilities and property costs led to a writedown of £1.1m.

This meant that overall pre-tax profits dropped from £32.6m in 2002 to £22.4m for the year ended in December 2003.

Chief executive Terry Benson (pictured) acknowledged that the year had been “challenging” and, although UK sales had been encouraging, its European operations had not performed well.

He said: “The outlook in Asia Pacific and the Americas is also improving and we are planning to open new offices in those markets.

“However, in continental Europe, trading conditions remain weak and our expectation is that 2004 will prove another difficult year for our business there.”

Turnover in Europe was 5.6% lower than the previous year at £120.4m and revenue was down 12%.