Outplacement firm Savile Group has seen sales rise as the country heads towards recession.

The group announced annual revenues on continuing activities up by 37% to £6.95m from £5.07m in 2007 and pre-tax profits of £0.72m compared to a loss of £0.19m in the previous year, while outplacement sales increased by 11% to £4m from £3.6m in 2007.

Jonathan Cohen, chairman of Savile Group, said: “The last downturn was on a different scale to this one – in 2008 we have big names disappearing from the UK banking industry and the only two remaining major Wall Street investment banks are repositioning themselves as banks. As a result, London’s economy is changing dramatically and the job market has been fundamentally transformed. Outplacement services enable the individuals who are impacted to reposition and relaunch their careers as quickly and effectively as possible, thereby minimising the misery normally associated with job loss. We have already seen an increase in demand, and expect to see much more as restructuring bites. We’re also opening our doors to those individuals whose employers have gone bust and now need to buy our services directly.”

Elsewhere, pharmaceutical recruiter Hobson Prior has also announced preliminary annual results.

Turnover increased by 25% to £10.26m, while earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew by 6% to £1.49m. Net fee income (NFI) was up 8% to £3.6m.