Good morning, and welcome to the Staffline Group PLC Investor Presentation. Throughout this recorded meeting, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time by the Q&A tab situated in the right-hand corner of your screen. Simply just click Q&A, scroll to the bottom, type your question, and press Send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself, however, the company can review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Albert Ellis, CEO. Good morning, sir.
Good morning, everybody, and thank you so much for joining us earlier this morning than usual. Bright and breezy. I've got with me Daniel Quint, the group's CFO. I'm the group's CEO, and we're delighted to bring you the results for the H1 to June 30th 2024. Moving quickly on to the highlights, the theme of this presentation and these results, as you will see, which recurs, underlying trading results are in line with the market expectations. Within, however, there are a number of variances. Recruitment has been particularly strong, we're delighted to have sort of gained market share in the last 12 months, 18 months.
We've had a strategy for strong organic growth, and you'll see those results coming through very strongly in that division's results, and I'll get onto that in the operating review. I don't need to reemphasize the importance that we place on the hours worked. That's a driver of revenue and profits for us, and our hours worked are up 9%. Despite the challenges in the recruitment market, the perm performance has been surprisingly good. I'll get onto the reasons for that as well later on. We have a new prison education contract. Publicly, now, we're saying that we're in negotiations for the final contract to be signed, and this is with Her Majesty's Prison Millsike. It's a new prison.
We've got a 10-year commitment there, GBP 49 million worth of revenue over those 10 years. Daniel will take you through the balance sheet strength, some good stuff and some pointers there in terms of the progress made, not only on tight working capital management, but also on the average net debt. So looking forward to the H2 , because the H1 is always a little bit of an update and a check at the halfway stage of the year.
Yes, we've made excellent progress, but actually, the momentum that the strong organic growth has given us into the H2 , and this is without any assistance by market demand, is that with the additional demand we are getting from our new business wins and expanded market share, means that we can really capitalize on the coming trading peak. Every year, we have a strong trading peak that lasts about a couple of months between October and the middle of December, and that is where we generate the majority of our revenues and activities. So we're looking forward to one of the best peaks that we've had in recent years, while we maintain an absolutely laser-sharp focus on delivery.
We will successfully mobilize the contract wins that we've previously announced, particularly in Ireland, where we've got a majority of the new requirements coming out of the Republic of Ireland that we've secured. We have got at least 50% of the candidates in a process where we are putting them in situ in the Republic. So I'll talk about that when I get to the results in Ireland. And then finally, you know, we've talked about PeoplePlus a lot in the past, and this time, we will give you some more detail on what the recent political turmoil and general election has had as an impact on the business. We've still won good business and strong bids, as you've seen, but I'll talk about the impact of that commissioning later on.
And then finally, Daniel will, of course, talk about the cash flows in the next six months as well. Daniel?
Thank you, Albert. Now just moving on to the financials. It's been a really interesting half year, a half year of real progress that we've made based on relationships that we've been working on over the last 2-3 years, and specifically, I talk about that in our recruitment businesses. And that really is the key driver to the 11.7% increase in revenue in H1 compared to H1 last year in 2023. The propulsion that we have received from the hard work done in our recruitment businesses on working on those core customers and gaining their trust, and now really delivering for them throughout the U.K., is a really fantastic sight to see, and we see that in the revenue numbers.
In terms of gross profit, where we're just marginally up 0.3% on prior year, I think it's also important to reflect on the mix in that, which Albert will do a bit later on in the divisional review. But underlying that is real progress made in the recruitment businesses, and as we signaled at the beginning of the year, some movement backwards in PeoplePlus. But it really is a sign of success in the recruitment businesses when the rest of the recruitment sector is finding it's quite challenging times, and you would hope that a temporary business, a temporary worker business model as our own, would really be able to deliver in these times.
And yes, and yes, we are, and Albert will go into that in a bit more detail in the division, but to be 0.3% up in gross profit at this time is really good. And in terms of underlying operating profit at a group, just marginally down year-over-year, but we have seen some relatively steep declines in operating profit in UK businesses within larger groups. So I'm pleased with that. And more importantly, within the group operating profit, we're over 50% up in our recruitment business operating profit, and I think that's very important to recognize as well.
Final point from me on the key numbers in the bottom right here, we have decided to take an impairment charge against goodwill in PeoplePlus, as Albert will go on to talk about, the relative political uncertainty leading up to the election, and now the transitional uncertainty in some of the commissioning worlds within which we operate in PeoplePlus does mean that 2025, and it has some questions in terms of the delivery of the number, and we're making sure we're laser-focused on cost in that business, but we have decided to take an impairment at the moment and taking a cautious position on that business as we stand going forward. So just to move on to the balance sheet.
Over the last 12 months, we've seen a strong underlying trading cash generation of GBP 7.7 million. This has allowed us to continue with our share buyback program, as well as be able to fulfill and drive forward that growth in blue-collar hours, which has used up some working capital, but for the right reasons, for growth reasons. We have, as you will see in the top right-hand corner, there's been a tick-up in interest costs, and of course, we all know that interest rates have stayed a little higher than expected for a little longer. We'll see what happens this Thursday in terms of the Bank of England announcement and in the ensuing months around interest rates, but we're watching that very carefully.
What's important, I'll come onto in a moment, is that our 3-month average daily net debt, a KPI that we're presenting for the first time, so that's a rolling daily average for 90 days, is GBP 3.3 million less at GBP 2.8 million of net debt at the 13th of June. I've got a graph on that, which I'll show you. Very, very importantly, what's key in terms of the last bullet point on this slide, but also the boxes in the bottom right-hand side of this slide, is that the financing and the covenants have lots of headroom, so over GBP 50 million of financing headroom, very low leverage, 3x EBITDA and good interest cover, covenant position.
So, we're in a good position as we enter H2 with a balance sheet to take advantage of the opportunities that our businesses have delivered on the front line in our operations. That should really help us to drive forward H2, as Albert has already referred to. So just coming on to the year-over-year net debt position, which has increased from GBP 3.5 to GBP 9.2, but I wanted to just break that down a little bit. You'll see I've split it into two halves. You'll see that we generated some very strong trading cash flow of GBP 13.3 million.
And actually, at the end of the H1 of this presentation, in the middle, you'll see the first blue column of GBP 4.2 million of net cash, and that is before share buybacks, so share repurchase share purchases, as well as non-trading cash flows. So our, our trading cash flow took us from net debt of GBP 3.5 million last year to GBP 4.2 million of net cash. And then we did deploy that capital in both terms of share purchases, totaling 9.1 and share purchases and funding, totaling GBP 9.1 million , as well as the closure of our skills business over the last 12 months, among other reorganization costs, making sure that we're fully primed for 2024 and beyond, of GBP 4.3 million pounds.
That's how we get over a 12-month period to the GBP 9.2 million of net debt. Just moving on to my final slide on net debt, which is a new slide. Something we've been monitoring, generally, is having a look at net debt, not on a spot basis on the 13th of June, but on an average daily basis over three months leading up to the 13th of June. I'm sure you'll be aware that a business like ours has some peaks and troughs in terms of the money we spend from day- to- day, from week- to- week, from month- to- month. A business like ours spends money and pays HMRC, PAYE, and VAT, and those happen on various days in a month.
Therefore, if you look at over a 3-month period, that's actually quite a useful way of looking at our performance on net debt. You'll see at the 13th of June, on an average three-month daily rate over the three months preceding the 13th of June 2024, our net debt was an average of GBP 2.8 million. On the same basis, last year, the 13th of June 2023, the 90 days, three months leading up to that day, if you looked at the average daily net debt, that was GBP 6.1 million. That shows a GBP 3.3 million improvement. That smooths out any ad hocs that have happened over the 90 days leading up to those dates.
I think that's quite an important analysis to be able to look at, and it's a good platform and springboard that we enter H2 2024 on. I'm going to hand over to Albert now to just reflect a bit more on our divisional performance.
Thank you, Daniel. So looking at the divisional results, and I'm going to start with PeoplePlus, as Daniel has alluded to, we've had a good year so far, and this year is expected to be in line with expectations. PeoplePlus has also secured the substantial contract with His Majesty's Prison Millsike, GBP 49 million over 10 years. So there's plenty to be optimistic about. However, because it's in the public sector, the majority of its revenues derive from the public sector. The recent change of administration and political uncertainty leading up to that has meant we've seen a commissioning trough. Bids being paused or outstanding results being delayed right across the piece, and so that has pushed back, in effect, our 2025 and 2026 earnings.
PeoplePlus is marking time, but we're very confident that the new administration, as all of them do, once they get their feet under the desk, they prioritize the spending, and they allocate the budgets. It's just a matter of waiting through that transition time. Anyway, that's PeoplePlus, pipeline delays, but a new contract with HMP Millsike, however, it's in line with expectations. Looking at Recruitment Ireland, and moving to the middle there, that really has bounced back from last year. Last year, our Irish business was affected by the white-collar recruitment declines, but has bounced back tremendously. As you can see, the true test of a recruitment business is its gross profit performance, and that's up 6.6%, the highest gross profit increase in the group.
Mostly driven by a strong performance in permanent fees, comprising not only placement fees and commissioning, but also the testing, the consulting, and the assessment side of placing permanent candidates into work in Ireland. So some strong results there from the permanent side of the business, which for me, having been in the sector for many years, is a really good indication of strong relationships and an excellent understanding and execution ability on your permanent desks. Challenging in a difficult market, but nevertheless, very impressive, up 30% year-on-year. Very strong 8.5 to contract pipeline continues into the autumn and into the final quarter of the year.
We're expecting the H2 to be much more significant than the H1 as these contracts start coming on stream. And so, with tight cost control, we're expecting recruitment in Ireland to be a strong performance by the year end, even beating a strong performance in the first six months. So I don't want to labor it, but if you look at the 50% increase in operating profit, it does infer that that cost base has been held rock steady, and with a tight control of management over the overheads.
And now, finally, to Recruitment GB, really is at the heart of these excellent results that we're presenting this morning, with revenues up 15%, somewhat flattered a little bit by the fact that we have wages that pass through our revenue and our cost for sales lines. Those wages, some of them minimum wages, have been raised with the recent minimum wage uplift and, of course, the uplift last year. So there is an inflationary element there, but that's only about 8%. The rest of it is above minimum wage. The rest of our revenue is unaffected by the lift in minimum wage and represents a true strong organic growth performance.
As you can see, that's converted to gross profit of 5% increase and an underlying profit that's up 55.6%. Quite phenomenal in the current market. Really, it's about temp hours. The new business that we've won and the new business that has been taken on, the expanded business in existing customers, has yielded an increase in temp hours of over 9%. But that's not where the story ends. The permanent recruitment division has also increased revenues by 11%. It's a small number, yes, but it's still an improvement, and this is a result of a contract win in the past 18 months as well. Recruitment GB, really doing well compared to last year. So did Ireland, PeoplePlus marking time.
Now, I want to look on the next slide at some of the reasons and the names behind the results. And I'm not gonna go into too much detail. What I'm going to do is try and give you an insight as to why these household names, names that are recognized anywhere in the U.K., we've done so well. The first point is that the business is committed, in a way that I've not seen in any other recruitment business, to a delivery culture of absolute excellence and quality. You cannot work with those sorts of brands without absolutely being committed to delivering a quality service at the very highest level.
That's been the key driver for expanding our market share, outperforming competitors in delivering temporary candidates into work on time and at the right sites. Now, that's all, that's part of the story, that's the majority of the story, but it also relies on a very strong compliance culture, and that's very important for these brands, these publicly listed brands. They want to work with partners that not only can deliver, but can deliver in a compliant fashion. So we're very proud of all the controls and the structure that's been put in place to provide that assurance. And thirdly, last but not least, it's the ability to finance the payrolls, substantial payrolls in some cases, up to 40,000 temps across the U.K. You know, averaging about 30-35,000 on a weekly basis.
To be able to fund that safely on time, every week, every time, that's very important to our customers and our confidence for our workers. Now, I just want to pick out in the bottom left-hand side of that slide. A little, you know, interesting indicator of Q3 , Q4 , which is that you can see in Q1 , the difference year-on-year is smaller than Q2 . So Q2 , we've actually seen an acceleration of hours, which that momentum should feed into Q3 and Q4 . I'm confident that we will see that momentum continue, which actually means that the 9% average includes a slightly weaker Q1 , year-on-year versus Q2 , which has got measurably stronger.
So that is clearly an indication that the underlying rate of hourly, weekly, hourly uplift is stronger than the average 9% at the end of June. And then finally, just to give you some information on the market share, to show you the science behind what we're saying, with 41% on average in our top 20 customers in blue collar, the market share has increased by seven percentage points to 48%, and you that know and study market share will know how challenging that would be over 20 customers and what a success that has been. So that's the core, that's the core reason for this morning's results and the success that we're presenting. Daniel?
Thank you, Albert. I just wanted to dwell once again, as we do at the year-end, on the value that the group, in combination between its Staffline Recruitment brands across the U.K., as well as PeoplePlus, brings to our customers, and Albert spoke about this a little bit just before in terms of compliance, but we're also delivering, you know, social value, finding our workers jobs and making sure that they're paid on time and getting into good work opportunities. As you'll know, in PeoplePlus, we educate prisoners, and of course, that's a very, very topical theme, post the election of our new government for the following the 4th of July.
We believe that our business and our group is well-positioned to work in the new environment, both in terms of recruitment and our PeoplePlus businesses, where our focus is to make a positive difference to people's lives and deliver social value to the communities in which we operate, and we do that in a number of ways. Just to reflect on some of the realities of what we're doing and delivering out there in business for businesses and for disadvantaged groups throughout the UK, training circa 8,500 people for vacancies available through our social recruitment partners, getting nearly 100,000 people into work annually.
We've helped nearly 3,500 unemployed people into work during H1 already, and over 8,000 learners in 72 prisons have started over 14, nearly 15,000 courses in H1 2024. We really feel as though we can add value to the people that we work with, the companies that we work with, and of course, that translates through to our stakeholders. I think it's important just to emphasize those areas that we contribute to the UK. Now just handing back to Albert to conclude.
Thank you, Daniel. Just a point on the environmental, social, and governance aspects, which are obviously very important, but for me, there's a commercial benefit in the businesses working together. We've actually seen tangible results, where customers appreciate, and indeed use, services and consulting from both sides of the divide between recruitment and PeoplePlus. So in PeoplePlus's transformation, one of their objectives was to generate more diverse and non-public sector derived revenues, and that has assisted the group in terms of its broader approach to customers. And we've seen referrals from PeoplePlus into Staffline GB, and we've seen the reinforcement of relationships from one division to the other. So working hand in glove, very synergistic. So not just nice words, but also meaningful activity and P&L benefit as well. So finally, current trading and outlook.
Look, I mean, I've gone through the Recruitment GB, and as I said at the outset of this presentation, this is an update. It's a half year, sort of, quick report card on where we are. The majority of the revenues and profits will come in the H2 , and what we do in the H1 always informs what happens in the H2 . And with the momentum that I've just explained in terms of hours, exiting Q2 into Q3 and Q4 , Daniel and I, and the management team, are confident that we should see a strong peak, stronger than recent years, just purely based on the amount and volumes, the strong organic growth that has been secured in the last 6- 18 months.
So with working hours up 9% on average in the H2 , in the H1 , we expect that momentum to continue. We're also seeing a trend in our customers for, particularly in logistics, for consolidation, and that puts the supply chain where we are at the head of that, particular supply chain, and we've got the largest share. It puts us in a unique position to expand our services into businesses that we may not have the sorts of market share that I've just been talking about. So that logistics sector consolidation really does present opportunities for the business. So Recruitment GB, H2 , expecting a good peak, a strong peak, working to make sure that we can deliver on it, and benefiting from consolidation, in the sector.
In Recruitment Ireland, look, I've talked about the new contracts both in March and earlier on in the presentation, but I can't emphasize this enough, all the revenues coming from those contracts, majority will come through in the H2 , this year's allocation at least. So we're expecting those new contracts to bring benefit into the H2 in Ireland. The Republic of Ireland continues to be a strong source of growth for us. We've invested in the Republic in recent years, and it we are benefiting from the different drivers of economic growth and demand in the Republic. Having said that, Northern Ireland has suffered a little bit from the impasse in Stormont.
It has suffered a little bit from the sort of contraction in public sector spend as a result, but that's all been freed up by the new arrangements and the new developments with the Northern Irish government, and we're confident that that's going to improve, continue into the H2 , and we'll see public sector spend coming into line, really, with the rest of the U.K. So very confident in the results for Recruitment Ireland. As I've said, PeoplePlus, look, we've had extensions, Restarts being extended till 2028. We've seen new business wins.
The pipeline impact is really just as a shift of demand and earnings from one year to the next, as we wait for that transition period to conclude, and I'm very confident that the current government's focus on economically inactive, a huge pool of job seekers and individuals, adults that are not currently in work. I am confident the government will have programs to enable those that are not currently in work to get support to get into work. And that means that PeoplePlus's employability business, which has suffered from the recent political uncertainty, will stage a nice comeback for us.
And then finally, obviously, just to reinforce that overall and individually, the businesses are all performing in line with our expectations, and we expect that the board is confident in the full year 2024 outcome. So with that, thank you for listening, and thank you for your patience. It's a bit little bit earlier this morning. Hopefully, that's a benefit. And so I hand you back to our chair.
Fantastic. Thank you very much indeed for the presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just using the Q&A tab situated in the right-hand corner of your screen. But just while the team take a few moments to review those questions submitted today, I'd like to remind you, the recording of the presentation, along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A, can be accessed via your investor dashboard. As you can see, we, we've had a number of questions submitted throughout today's presentation. So if I may just hand over to you, just click on that Q&A tab, and where appropriate to do so, just read out the question and give your response, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you.
Thank you very much. So I will chair this, if that's okay. So the first question: Can you expand on the significant deterioration in working capital? So I think I've covered that. I would just like to reiterate two messages there. The first is, that we've had growth in our temporary worker hours, and you can see that coming through in our Recruitment GB profits and revenue growth and also gross profit growth and operating profit growth. So that is, I would say, working capital investment. And secondly, as announced over the last 12 months, we've also handed cash back to shareholders through share buybacks. So those are the two drivers of that.
But I'd like to emphasize the first one, that we, we look at this business as a real investment opportunity, so that's the, the primary driver there. In terms of second question, what are the next steps in the strategy to transform PeoplePlus into a stable annuity business? I think, Albert, you touched on that, but you might want to maybe just give an additional moment on it.
Yes, we, we have actually got a program of keeping our costs in line with current demand. So when we look at our revenues and our revenue forecast, keep trimming our costs and keeping them in line with the revenues.
We certainly don't want to, you know, reduce the business's operating capacity, because we've got GBP 190 million worth of prison education services bids outstanding, which have been pushed back, and we're expecting a good result from those bids. And so we want to maintain the capacity of the business to deliver, and therefore, our objective is to just trim and keep overheads in line with revenues, until, as I've said in my presentation, we see more demand coming through from across the piece there in government. We're also focused on generating revenues from the public sector, so we feel we've made good progress from the private sector. We feel we've made good progress in that.
We are generating a lot of interest from large companies who want social value recruitment and who want to more than just a transactional approach to hiring mainly people in work in on minimum wages from very challenging backgrounds. Companies are very interested in that, and that is starting to generate some revenues. We've got a long way to go, but in terms of transforming it into a stable annuity revenue base, I think we haven't finished that business by any stretch of the imagination, but well on our way.
Thank you, Albert. Next question is: With a diverse offering, how do you look to balance capital allocation between growth and market expansion opportunities?
... and that of returning capital to investors? That's a really excellent question. I think our perspective on that certainly is open to adjustments over time. Over the last 12 months, and that's predominantly in the H2 of last year, and in the Q1 of this year, we carried out share buyback programs and funded the employee benefit trust at share prices of low 20s, high 20s, circa 30p. And in that position, those decisions were certainly compelling. Of course, we will approach the decisions in terms of returning capital to investors in a dynamic fashion as we go forward.
But as I mentioned a bit earlier, the opportunities to grow our market footprint, especially in our recruitment divisions, as we have started to see the benefits of, again, in gross profit and in operating profit in H1, and we hope, obviously, hope to see that continue in H2, is a decision that we took that decided we should invest in that expansion. They are our core customers and, you know, key leaders and key brands in the UK, which we are partnering with, and we see real value in continuing that expansion. So, it's a dynamic process, and we will continue to evaluate that in a very dynamic fashion. But not a decision that you make in one day and then necessarily stick with that firm decision.
You need to see the way the landscape adjusts, et cetera, as you move forward. Next question: "Please, can you talk through the pipeline in PeoplePlus?
Yes, that's relatively straightforward. In March, we said that we had a pipeline of GBP 310 million. A hundred and twenty of that, GBP 120 million, has now been announced, of which our share has been GBP 49 million, so just under 50%, which, you know, we're pleased about. It is a-- it's the mighty contract with HMP Millsike is a long contract. It's over 10 years, provides a lot of visibility, and goes to stabilizing that strategic objective with PeoplePlus in the long term. Of the rest, which is GBP 190 million, we are still awaiting an outcome for that. So those results have been delayed quite significantly into 2025.
So we will wait for those, but we're more than confident that we will be able to win our fair share of those. So that's 310 announced, of which we've had GBP 120 million, of which GBP 49 million, we've got news, positive news, and we've secured. And then the rest, the remaining GBP 190 million, we're awaiting news on that, which is likely to be Q1 , Q2 next year.
Thank you, Albert. I think this is the final question, which is: "Given that PeoplePlus is still profitable, why is there a need to do the goodwill impairment at this time?" Good question. The answer to that question is, it's really based on the carrying value of goodwill that, of course, was incepted on acquisition of the businesses and the primary business of A4e when it was acquired in 2015, which was brought together with a couple of other earlier acquisitions to create PeoplePlus within the Staffline Group. And although, correct observation, that PeoplePlus is still profitable, and will be going forward, the level of profit didn't necessarily, at the moment, substantiate the carrying value of the goodwill, and the value that was on the balance sheet at this point in time.
That is the basis upon which we have taken that impairment charge, and have reviewed those numbers at this time, quite simply. So I think that is the last question from me. Before I just hand back to Albert for one moment, I'd just like to say thank you very much for all those who've come to the presentation this morning. Thank you very much to all our stakeholders, whether that's investors, customers, and very importantly, our employees, for what has been a really good H1 in a challenging environment, especially in the context of the wider recruitment sector. And also to our employees, again, thank you for all your hard efforts, and especially in advance of H2, which we see lots of opportunities in, which will require lots of hard work.
But we see some real opportunities for success in H2. So thank you very much from me. Albert, over to you to finish up.
Yes, thank you. As I said, just to leave you with the key message, you know, there are a lot of focus on PeoplePlus because there's quite a bit of information and new information. PeoplePlus is 10% of the Group's the contribution of the divisions. 90% is the recruitment business, where we're seeing in excess of 50% uplift in operating profit in the H1 of this year, and we are more than confident that that momentum will continue into the H2 . For a H1 summary on our report here at the six-month point, we're more than confident that the full year is going to be in line with expectations.
We feel proud that the Group, its customers, and its supply chain has beaten, you know, the sector in terms of its results and its management of its strategy, its strong organic growth, its focus on excellence in delivery, which you've seen coming through those results. Finally, very important to us is the share buyback, our returns to shareholders. We're generating at the trading cashflow year-on-year level. We're generating strong cash flows underlying, and those will be used to buy shares in the future, as we've announced, and of course, to strengthen, continue to strengthen our balance sheet. With that, thank you very much.
Fantastic. Thank you very much indeed, Albert, Daniel. Thank you for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close the session? You should be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, and it's greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team at Staffline Group PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good morning to you all.