GROWTH AT the Irish operation of British recruiter Hays outperformed much of the rest of the company in the three months to the end of June, recording an increase in net fees of 26 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2011.
Irish business was up 30 per cent year-on-year, the company said yesterday, as it reported results for its fourth quarter, which ends in June.
“Ireland has been one of our better performers,” said group finance director Paul Venables. “We certainly have Ireland in our top five for fee growth and in our top two if you consider the economic backdrop.”
Despite the strong performance in Ireland, Mr Venables acknowledged the size of its Irish business was only about two-thirds of what it was at its peak in mid-2007.
“Still, it’s nice to have a year where you’ve grown by 30 per cent,” he said, adding that the IT, pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors had performed well.
Hays, which specialises in placing workers in accountancy, construction and IT jobs, said net fees for the group rose 2 per cent in the three months to the end of June. The outcome was at the lower end of a company-compiled consensus forecast of 2-4 per cent.
Combined figures for Britain and Ireland showed a drop in net fees of 9 per cent. A strong performance in Germany helped to offset the impact of the euro zone crisis. Shares in the FTSE-250 listed firm – which makes 71 per cent of group revenue overseas – fell 3.4 per cent yesterday. – (Additional reporting Reuters)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)