Johannesburg - The specialist staffing solutions company, Kelly Group, experienced a 13 percent rise in revenue to R786.3 million, according to results released on Wednesday.
Operating profits increased by 117 percent to R10.4m and headline earnings per share improved to 5.7 cents from 0.4 cents, the company said in a statement.
“Kelly Group has grown revenue in the current market, which is testament to the effectiveness of the management growth strategy.”
In the six months prior to March 31 this year, the strategy implemented by management was yielding strong results, with the group performing well across its divisions.
Most notably across its divisions, InnStaff had delivered significant growth and entrenched its position as the dominant player in the hospitality industry.
“It continues to enhance its offering of specialised hospitality staffing services in the hotel and casino sectors,” the company said.
Kelly Industrial reported a 29 percent increase in the warehousing, logistics, and supply chain management outsourcing business.
M Squared was well-positioned to deliver large outsourced contracts for blue chip clients, focused predominately on white collar markets with a move into the blue collar sector “coming into play”.
This was through the delivery of managed service provider (MSP) and resource process outsourcing (RPO) solutions.
Torque IT continued to develop scarce skills through its ICT courses and programmes, while Kelly had done extremely well to retain head-count in the financial services market, which was seen to be shrinking “rapidly”.
Chief executive Gareth Tindall said: “The strategy to position the group for growth after a successful turnaround over the past three years is now bearing fruit.
“However, there will still be a critical focus on managing costs and streamlining operations.”
He said the company had built significant momentum in the first six months of the year and believed this would continue in the second half.
“Our group is now ideally positioned to tackle South Africa's challenges of employment growth and skills development,” Tindall said.
It was vital that companies such as Kelly Group made a positive impact that could stimulate the economy through providing and developing much-needed skills.
Importantly, Kelly Group maintained its “white collar” business and enjoyed considerable growth in the “blue collar” end of the staffing solutions market.
The consolidation of various white collar staffing brands had assisted to maintain market share during this period.
During the half year, the company also finalised its acquisition of Anglo African Consulting.
With a stronger balance sheet and reduced debt, Tindall believed Kelly Group was well positioned for the second half of the 2014
financial year.
Regarding the expression of interest by Adcorp Holdings to buy the remaining 71 percent of the group it did not already own, Tindall said talks were continuing, but that it was business as usual for the company. - Sapa