Northern Recruitment Consultant Sees Benefits of Temp Jobs

Northern Recruitment Group has shown signs of recovery by posting a 20% rise in first half turnover. But despite the lift in revenues to £11.2m, the Newcastle company has seen profits drop slightly to £1m - continuing a two-year slump.

NRG said £140,000 of the fall in earnings was down to bad debt when Hartlepool client and frozen desserts maker Bonne Bouche went into administration this month with the loss of more than 200 jobs.

But even stripping that out, profits were still flat compared with a year ago.

Chief executive Lorna Moran said this was largely due to an increase in salaries and administration as it recruited 10 more consultants, boosting its workforce to 130.

However, she was optimistic about the year ahead as contracts, particularly for temporary staff, continued to flow in.

"In the round, we are not at all disappointed with the first half. We are absolutely on track for a good year," she said.

A boom in the temporary staff market meant that revenues in its temp business were up 28%, compared with a 5% rise in fees for permanent recruitment.

The company Ms Moran founded as Geordie Jobfinders in 1976 has changed from almost entirely recruiting temporary staff, as it did when it floated in 1997, to focus 70% of its efforts on the more profitable permanent recruitment market.

The company yesterday said: "Our core permanent and temporary recruitment businesses have both continued to make progress in the first month of the second half. The new business pipeline is exceptionally strong, and we are awaiting the outcome of a number of bids and tenders which have the potential to deliver significantly improved levels of utilisation at NRG Connect [which handles large projects recruiting hundreds or thousands of people for the private and public sector].