Health and social care recruiter Pulse has announced an increase in earnings in 2008.

Earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) increased to £7.1m from £1m in 2007. Revenues rose 43% to  £138m.

Gross margin increased by 58% to £26.2m, with gross margin up 1.8 percentage points to 19%, with operating cashflow of £6.9m.

Commenting on the results, Richard MacMillan, Pulse’s chief executive, says: “2008 has been a fantastic year for the business as we began to realise the efforts of the diversification strategy established three years ago.

“In 2006, we set an ambitious plan to invest organically in higher margin growth areas of the health and social care staffing market which has returned the company to healthy profitability that is showing further improvement in 2009. The foundations are laid and we are now in an excellent position to continue this strong growth over the coming years.”