Tue, 4 Jun 2013Recruitment and outsourcing group Servoca reported both revenue and gross profit for the six months to 31 March down against the same period last year, respectively by 3.5% to £21.47m, and 6% to £5.8m.

Similar trends of slight decline were seen in both sides of the group. Recruitment makes up just over two-thirds of the business, and is divided into education, healthcare and police markets.

The education business showed “a positive outlook at the end of the last financial year and this has been confirmed in the first half of this year”, with investment and branch openings.

The healthcare operations “have been restructured to reduce overheads in the face of challenging trading conditions which have continued. The strong action taken last year has resulted in improved profitability during the current period”.

Despite a particularly strong previous year due to Olympics-related work for the segment, the policing division has seen growth and “successfully established new revenue streams from areas of the market that we had not previously supplied”, according to a company statement.

Profit before taxation doubled from last year’s £100k to £220k. Full results will be available via the recruitment firm's website.