Profits at Impellam Group have risen in line with expectations, according to the international recruiter’s audited interim results for H1 ended 1 July.

The group’s results reveal:

·     Turnover increased 0.9% to £549.4m (June 2010: £544.4m)

·     Operating profit increased 29.6% to £16.2m (June 2010: £12.5m)

·     Gross profit increased 2.9% to £91.1m (June 2010: £88.5m)

·     Conversion of gross profit into operating profit increased to 17.8% (June 2010: 14.1%)

·     Fees from permanent placements increased to £10.4m (June 2010: £9m)

Chairman Cheryl Jones says: “I am pleased to announce that Impellam’s operating profit of £16.2m for the first half of the year achieved the group’s plan expectation. The group’s strategy to build competitive market sustainability requires both the re-evaluation of marketing and sales initiatives and improvement in revenue quality, while continuing business re-engineering programmes. These initiatives have been successful to date.

“The group’s turnover for the first half of 2011 was affected by shrinkage in specific areas of the group’s client base, exiting of certain contracts across the businesses and the challenges of difficult market conditions. As a result, the group increased turnover by just under 1.0% and improved the gross margin percentage by 30 bps.”