Hello, all, and a warm welcome to the PageGroup Q2 2022 Trading Update. My name is Lydia, and I'll be your operator today. If you'd like to ask a question at the end of the prepared remarks, you may do so by pressing star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. It's my pleasure to now hand you over to our host, Kelvin Stagg, CFO. Please go ahead when you're ready.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the PageGroup second quarter and first half trading update. I'm Kelvin Stagg, Chief Financial Officer, and on the call with me is Steve Ingham, Chief Executive Officer. Although I will not read it through, I'd just like to make reference to the legal formalities that are covered in the cautionary statement in the appendix to this presentation, and which will also be available on our website following the call. The strong trading conditions we experienced in Q1 2022 continued into the second quarter. Consequently, the group delivered gross profit of GBP 280.9 million, a record quarter for the group. We grew 25.5% in constant currencies against Q2 2021, which was lower than our Q1 growth rate of 43% was against the 12% tougher comparator.
Against the pre-pandemic levels in 2019, we were up 28% in both Q1 and Q2. For the first half, we delivered gross profit of GBP 539 million, a record up 33.3% on H1 2021. Reflecting the continued strong trading conditions, in Q2, we increased our fee earner headcount by 307. The majority of these were non-experienced hires, as the availability of experienced hires has become increasingly limited. This was broadly in line with the level of quarterly investment that we have made since Q3 last year. To support this growth, our operational support headcount rose by 73%, and as such, our ratio of fee earners to non-operational staff remained at 78.22%. Overall, the group had 6,734 fee earners and a total headcount of 8,668.
We have a strong balance sheet with net cash at the end of June of around GBP 135 million. This compares to GBP 122 million at the end of Q1 and is after payment of the final dividend for 2021 in June of GBP 33 million. I'll now give a brief financial review. There was broadly similar growth in both permanent and temporary recruitment. Overall, permanent recruitment grew 25.7% against Q2 2021, with temporary up 24.5%. Reflecting this, our ratio of permanent to temporary gross profit was 78.22%, in line with Q1 2022. In Michael Page, permanent recruitment represented 85% of gross profit, while in Page Personnel it was less, at 59%.
Michael Page continued to be more resilient across temporary recruitment, although performance in Page Personnel improved significantly, and the permanent business delivered consistent growth across both brands. In our temporary business, Michael Page delivered particularly strong growth, up 31%, driven by our contracting business in Germany. Page Personnel temporary growth was behind this, at 18%, due to slower growth in France and the impact of the Queen's Jubilee in the U.K. We continue to focus on our five large high-potential geographic markets of Germany, Greater China, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the U.S. Collectively, they represented 39% of the group in Q2, marginally below the peak of 40% in Q3 2021. We now have 2,715 fee earners in these five markets, which compares to around GBP 800 in 2010 as we recovered from the global financial crisis.
Together, they delivered a record gross profit in Q2, with record performances in all markets outside of Greater China, which was impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. In Q2, our large high potential markets grew 23%, and excluding Greater China, growth was 33%. Our high potential disciplines of technology and healthcare and life sciences continue to be among the strongest performing, and technology remains our second-largest discipline, representing around 14% of the group. We have successfully established the infrastructure and are building revenue in our newest brand, Page Outsourcing, which continues to exceed our plan. Reflecting the continued improvement in trading conditions, in Q2 we increased our fee earner headcount by 307. The majority of these were non-experienced hires as the availability of experienced hires has become increasingly limited.
To support this growth, our operational support headcount rose by 73%, and as such, our ratio of fee earners to our non-operational staff remained at 78.22%. Our attrition rate currently remains relatively low, with no indication of slowdown in any of our forward-looking KPIs. We remain confident in our ability to adjust our headcount down if needed with our flexible business model and natural staff attrition. This fee earner headcount and gross profit chart shows the unprecedented scale of the decline in group gross profit in 2020 due to COVID-19 and the comparison to the global financial crisis in 2008. It also shows how we chose strategically to maintain and invest in our platform, which has driven the sharp recovery seen throughout 2021 and the first half of 2022.
I will now hand you over to Steve for a regional view and a summary.
Thank you, Kelvin. The strong growth we saw in Q1 2022 continued into Q2. Overall, for the quarter, we grew 25.5% against 2021 and delivered a new record quarter for the group. We saw strong double-digit growth in all four regions, with the Americas being our fastest-growing. 25 individual countries delivered record quarters, and 14 countries exited the record month in June. June was also a record month for the group and our second month with a gross profit in excess of GBP 100 million. The recent weakening of sterling has had a favorable impact on the quarter's growth rate compared to the prior year, increasing the reported gross profit growth rate by 2.3 percentage points or GBP 5.1 million.
Compared to the Q2 2019 pre-pandemic gross profit, the group delivered growth of 28% in line with our growth rate in Q1. In our largest region, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, which represented 49% of the group, we grew 29.4% in Q2 2021. Overall conditions continued to be more favorable in Michael Page, which is focused on higher income permanent recruitment and was up 34% for the quarter. Conditions were more challenging in Page Personnel, which is focused on lower-level recruitment with a higher proportion of temporary and was up 22% overall. France grew 21%, delivering a record quarter. Page Personnel, representing approximately 60% of France, was up 17%. Michael Page, which had been more resilient throughout the pandemic, grew 26%.
Germany, the group's third-largest market, representing 11% of the group, delivered another record quarter, up 32%, with strong growth in all three brands. Our primarily technology-focused Michael Page interim business was the best performing, up 40%. We now have around 650 fee earners in Germany, having added over 100 in the past 12 months. We believe this positions us well for ongoing growth in this large, high potential market. Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain all delivered strong growth, and 11 countries in the region delivered record quarters. In Asia Pacific, representing 19% of the group, Q2 gross profit grew 11.7% on 2021. In Asia, 15% of the group, we grew 9% with strong double-digit growth in all markets outside of Greater China. In Greater China, 6% of the group, we declined 11%.
Mainland China was down 13%, driven by the recent COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. Hong Kong was also impacted by these restrictions and declined 8% in the quarter. Southeast Asia, our other large high potential market in the region, delivered strong growth of 33% with record performances in five markets, including our largest, Singapore. India, which represents 11% of Asia, delivered another record quarter, up 47%. We now have over 220 fee earners in this highly profitable market. Japan also delivered a record quarter, growing 15% on a tough comparator, driven by a strong performance in contracting. Australia grew 24%. The Americas, representing 18% of the group, was our fastest-growing region and delivered a record quarter in Q2 with growth of 34.1%.
North America grew 31%, where in the U.S., the consistently strong trading conditions seen since 2021 continued into Q2, and we delivered growth of 30%. This represented a record quarter with strong results in all offices, but most significantly in Boston, Chicago, and Houston. Growth was strong across all disciplines with good performances from property and construction, our largest discipline in the U.S., as well as technology and engineering. In Latin America, gross profit grew 40%, delivering a record quarter. Mexico, our largest country in the region, delivered a record quarter up 43%, and Brazil grew 28%. The remaining countries in the region were up 45% collectively, with record quarters for Argentina, Colombia, and Panama. Our global operating system, Customer Connect, went live in the remaining markets of Brazil, Mexico, and Panama during Q2, completing our global rollout.
In the U.K., which represented 14% of the group, gross profit grew 22.6%. Page Personnel, which operates at lower salary levels and have been slower to recover from the pandemic, was up 56%, delivering a record quarter. Michael Page grew 13%. The U.K. has seen good results across all regions with particularly strong performances from our finance and technology disciplines. I'll now provide a summary of our results. The strong growth we saw in Q1 2022 continued into Q2. Group gross profit in constant currencies was up 25.5% against 2021, with a good broad-based performance across all our geographies, disciplines, and brands. We delivered a record quarter for the group with record performances in 25 countries. We exited the quarter strongly, delivering a record month in June and our second month of gross profit in excess of GBP 100 million.
This performance was achieved despite the backdrop of macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, as well as continued COVID-19 restrictions in Greater China. We believe that our strategy of maintaining and investing in our platform throughout the pandemic by investing in experienced hires and focusing on technology and innovation has been key to us delivering these outstanding results. We delivered increased levels of productivity with the group continuing to benefit from the favorable trading conditions, including wage inflation and increased fee rates resulting from the high demand and short supply of candidates, as well as a shorter time to hire, facilitated by video interviewing and investments in new systems. We continue to invest in headcounts to enable us to capitalize on future growth opportunities.
We added 307 fee earners in Q2, broadly in line with recent quarters, with the most significant increases in the markets where we saw the strongest performances and highest potential for future growth. The implementation of our global operating system, Customer Connect, was completed in May, following the successful rollouts in the remaining countries of Brazil, Mexico, and Panama. We remain highly cash generative, having paid out the final 2021 dividend of GBP 33 million in June and ended the quarter with net cash of around GBP 135 million. Looking forward, we're clearly aware of the heightened degree of macroeconomic and political uncertainty that exists globally, particularly with regards to increasing inflation in the majority of markets in which we operate. We're monitoring all KPIs in the business regularly, but to date, we've seen no significant changes apart from the usual seasonal movements.
Given our highly diversified and adaptable business model with a cost base that can be adjusted rapidly, we'll look to progress towards our strategic goals while remaining highly vigilant. We're pleased with the group's performance in the first half of the year and currently expect 2022 full year operating profit to be in line with company compiled consensus of GBP 205 million. Kelvin and I will now be happy to take any questions that you may have.
Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad now. To withdraw your question, it's star followed by two. Our first question today comes from Anvesh Agrawal of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. Good morning. I got three questions, if I may. First, just on China, if you can provide a little bit more color how sort of it went during the quarter, sort of April, May, June. Were the trends any different and any signs of the business sort of getting better in July or what you're looking forward? Then second, just how are you thinking from a headcount perspective from here on? I mean, there is obviously increased uncertainty. Are you still looking sort of add on the headcount or you got enough capacity in the business to also maintain the run rate on the fees? And then finally, any sort of comment around the capital allocation, any, I mean are we still expecting a special divvy as usual, or your thinking has changed given the macroeconomic uncertainty? Thank you.
Sure, good morning. Let me answer the first two, and then Kelvin can come around on the third question. Look, in China, it's difficult. We're highly profitable, first of all, and the business is very strong. We've built a great platform that we're very proud of. However, it has become increasingly difficult. What we've found is that, particularly with a lot of the multinationals, there has been quite a big exodus of expats out of the market. For example, in Shanghai, roughly 50% of expats have left. There is an expectation a further 50% of the 50%, so another 25% will leave as well, over the remaining part of the year. That's had an impact.
While multinationals are not necessarily growing headcount, they are having to replace that headcount and, you know, we're involved in doing that. There is a natural element of business to what we're doing in China. Our ratio last year between domestic and multinationals was around 50/50. That has slightly changed in favor of multinationals as we've had to replace those vacancies that are being created by exodus. You know, look, business has continued. You asked whether it's different in June to the other two months of the quarter. No, not particularly. It seems to be fairly consistent with where we're at.
Our intention is to keep the platform that we've got and that means replacing those that leave, but we won't expand our headcount there until we see a change in the environment. We're also, I would add, very fortunate that across China, in terms of our own dependence on expats, it's relatively limited. While we've got several very strong expats in that market, they are few in number and at the moment are committed to the region and staying there. All good, highly profitable. Clearly we're very vigilant at the moment, but there's a reasonable activity and no further trend downwards or upwards.
In terms of headcount, look, we can't, you know, be unaware of the, you know, the outlook and the analyst notes that you guys are all writing and the press and so on. It's pretty downbeat at the moment, obviously. I've asked all of our regional managing directors around the world to only add headcount where it is absolutely necessary. You're right, we've added quite a bit of headcount and a lot of that headcount as yet will not be productive. Some of it will have only just arrived, the 300 or so that arrived in the quarter and will have yet to have made a placement.
Clearly we should be able to take up a significant amount of the growth that we hopefully will see in Q3 and Q4 using what we've already hired. We will only grow our headcount in the second half where we really need to in markets where our growth rate is particularly high, the potential is particularly good, and we see it as more sustainable than perhaps other markets. You know, I'd be very surprised if it was 300. Naturally as well, I would add that particularly in Europe, for obvious reasons, it doesn't need to be a big quarter, Q3, where we hire a lot of people into our own business. There'll be a natural breather, if you like, in our own hiring over the next quarter.
I suspect a significantly lower number when we're doing our Q3 trading update. Kelvin?
Yeah. Capital allocation, nothing's really changed. We would normally announce any supplementary return at the same time as we announce the interim dividend at the interims announcement. We have GBP 135 million of net cash in the bank at the moment. I think we proved our cash flow model through the pandemic as indeed we did back in 2009. Particularly the temp working capital unwinds, and therefore I would expect if things continue to go well, we'll have additional cash that will come in the second half of the year. If they don't, we'll probably have more cash.
We've said previously, we look to have a low point at the end of January in terms of net cash, which is after paying out annual bonuses to senior staff and the fourth quarter profit related bonuses to all of our consultants of about GBP 50 million. Therefore that GBP 30 million bonus number means we aim to turn the year at about GBP 80 million and we make a bit of a guess therefore between where we are in August and where we think we're gonna be at the end of the year. I expect the interim dividend, which is of the order of about GBP 16 million-17 million, we would increase that by 4%-5%, which is what we've done in many of the recent years.
Therefore there will be a capital return. Whether we return by dividend or whether we do share buyback, we would have to discuss that as a board and actively we have been. I think we talked to a number of our shareholders recently about the choice that we make. We will try to continue to be consistent in our capital allocation policy and apply it accordingly.
Yeah. That's very clear, Kelvin. Steve, thanks for your answer.
Cheers.
Thank you. The next question today comes from James Rose of Barclays. James, your line is open.
Hi, morning to you both.
Morning.
When we look at the pre-pandemic rate of +28%, could you help us think about that in terms of, you know, the volume of placements versus all the other components, so you know, wage mix and fees? On wage inflation overall, I appreciate your thoughts on how that's tracking, whether between jobs or on underlying salaries, is that still accelerating sequentially?
Sorry, I didn't understand the first question. The 28% of what, sorry?
In constant currency growth, I think the business is 28% larger than it was pre-pandemic. Within-
Right.
Within that, can you give us a sense of how much of it is due to wage inflation? How much of it is due to, you know, volume of placements overall in the business?
Yeah. Difficult to apportion it, to be honest, but what I would say is that I haven't seen it this busy in terms of job activity in 37 years. In terms of job count at the moment, it's way above where we were. There's a significant element of that growth created by job count. Clearly we have seen some wage inflation, particularly in areas like technology and healthcare and life sciences. It does vary by market considerably. Interestingly, you know, wage inflation or inflation generally in the market is lower in Asia than it was at the beginning of the year.
There are other markets like, the one I can think of actually is Poland, where, you know, there's a country there which, I mean, it's significantly up across Europe, but Poland is the highest of the markets we're in, where we've seen, you know, we're seeing inflation at the moment, well, at the end of June, of around 12%. You know, it varies. In terms of what we actually measure, it's the gap between the salary that somebody comes to us on when they're looking for a job and the salary we place them on, and that's often a bigger gap. It would have been a significant gap even in 2019, because generally speaking, whilst people move for a variety of reasons, they also tend to expect a salary increase when they move as well.
You know, there would always be a sort of element of between 5% and 15%, depending on which discipline you're talking about, which would be, I guess, what you would call wage inflation. Finally on fees, there's no doubt about it, our fees have strengthened around the world. I suppose probably the most significant would be our third and fourth largest markets, where our average fee was just above 24% of an annual salary. It would be now around 29%. Again, that shows client demand, 20% increase in our fee rate. That is, you know, clients saying, "Look, we need this candidate. We've got an important vacancy to fill, and therefore, you know, we know what your standard fees are.
Are we gonna pay gross or are we gonna pay your full fee on that salary?" That's clearly helped as well. It's a mixture of the three, and I would say all have contributed significantly to that 28% growth.
Great. Thanks for the color.
The next question today comes from Rory McKenzie of UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning, all. It's Rory here. Just two, please. Firstly, going back to this outlook statement, where you've not seen any change in trends yet. Can you talk about which KPIs you're most closely watching or maybe nervously watching at the moment? As you said, there's a lot written about falling business sentiments. Of course, financial markets and analysts can be known to overreact. Just wondered what intelligence your teams collect on your clients' own outlook and budgets, and whether you think that's kind of actually been adjusted yet as we've gone through this year.
Secondly, just on the U.S. within North America, just talk about maybe your market share in there at the moment and what your team's objectives have been and how that's been going kind of relative to market in the U.S.
Sure. Well, first one, KPIs. I mean, somewhat flippantly, of course, the first one we look at is the share price, which gives us an indication probably of what the expectation for the future looks like. No, in terms of what consultants, managers, directors and so on are measuring and watching across all 37 markets, team by team, and a team is typically five or six people, the first thing they would look at is job count. You know, every week, they'll expect a certain number of new vacancies to be working on. That would include quality of those jobs as well. Are they with clients we've worked with before, significant clients that are likely to actually see the recruitment through?
If it's a speculative approach, you know, then clearly we don't count it the same as you know, we need to fill this job by the end of the week or by the end of the month. Job count is the first one. Clearly we also then send CVs out to those in response, and we measure the number of interviews that we get. The client's appetite to respond to the CVs we've sent and the number they want to interview and the speed that they're interviewing them. If they sort of go, "Yeah, there was two that were vaguely interesting. We'll see them at the end of the month," then again, we take that as a sign that things are.
People are getting more nervous and slowing. We look at the conversion rates of those interviews from first to second and so on, depending on which brand we're talking about. Typically Michael Page or even Page Executive, the process can be more interviews than it would be in Page Personnel, where it can be a one interview process sometimes. We look at either a client sort of not making a decision or a candidate turning a. You know, where the candidate getting nervous about the market and the outlook and deciding that actually maybe thinking about it, I'm better off with the job I've got. I've been here a number of years and so on.
I have to say that's a thought that sort of used to always happen 20, 30 years ago. I see it less and less now. You know, maybe that's because COVID, the pandemic, 2020 took care of a lot of the fat in businesses and now a lot of the roles that we are filling are critical hires and therefore important. Also, you know, with high employment among professional people particularly, I do think there is an element of confidence which says, "Look, if I'm an accountant or a technology expert or whatever, looking for a job, I don't need to worry about whether I'll find one or not, there's plenty out there." At the moment, there certainly seems to be.
We monitor all of that activity right the way through to not only verbally accepting, but obviously starting in a new job and, you know, buybacks and so on. Also the enthusiasm by the client to make sure that they take it over the line and offer what's necessary. It really is a lot of detail. I mean, this is our day job and this is what we do. You know, clearly I've got a lot of very experienced operators that have been doing this for over 20 years, and we're very much used to watching the signs. Of course, we're mindful of what the press is saying and the news and, like I said earlier, what everyone's writing at the moment.
In terms of North America, our market share is not measurable. I mean, it is so small in terms of where we're at. I mean, it's a huge market, the biggest recruitment market in the world by some way. We're a predominantly perm business, you know, almost entirely perm. You know, we've got small offices in, you know, bigger than they've ever been, but small offices in comparison to the size of the cities that we're in. Market share is really not an issue. Again, we're measuring the same KPIs across that market at the moment, and they remain healthy. You know, it's a market with particularly high salaries and particularly high fee rates. At the moment it seems to be in a good state.
Now, again, we're watching very carefully, and we're reading as well the press and so, you know, there's an element of caution in our approach at the moment. As we see it today, and it's difficult to predict the future, but as we see it today, it remains very, very positive. In terms of market share, that really is not a concern. We're a multi-discipline, multi-office business. We have a national footprint there. There's more than we could ever imagine to go for. Therefore, in terms of size of business, I'm sure one day, maybe it will be competing with Germany, but you know, it'll probably be one of our two biggest markets globally.
Yeah. It's very helpful color . Thank you.
Thanks, Rory.
Next, we have a question from Hans Pluijgers of Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is open.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. Hans Pluijgers from Kepler Cheuvreux. Few questions from my side. You indicated that you had a record end of the quarter with over GBP 100 million in fees. Maybe could you give some feeling on how the trend was through the quarter? See any, let's say, slow slowdown through the quarter, and especially maybe also some indication by end market, so by client segment. Is there, let's say, anything changing there or anything particular to report? Secondly, on productivity, you already mentioned that you will not be focused on or limit the hiring in the coming months. What does HD believe, let's say, is still the room for productivity gains? Do you see still quite some room to improvement there? If you could maybe some feeling on that.
Lastly, on the rollout of new specializations and activities, could you give maybe some feeling where there's still some room to roll out, or you have plans to roll out new specializations in which countries and, you know, maybe also the potential there?
Sure. Look, in terms of what we saw in the quarter, I mean, it's not unusual that June is significantly bigger than April and May, and that was the case. I mean, to give you a sort of flavor of what over GBP 100 million means to us internally, our record in September was just under GBP 90 million, and that was a record for the group in a month. To be doing now over GBP 100 million in March and now June is a significant step and was significantly ahead of May and April. Did we see a trend of slowdown? No, we didn't throughout the quarter. We didn't see a trend of slowdown towards the end of June either.
It was a good finish with most markets doing more than they expected at the mid-month of June. Like I say, we can tell you what we're seeing at the moment, and at the moment it still remains healthy. In terms of end market, look, there are companies out there doing well, and there are companies out there not doing very well, and I read about them as well. You know, you can imagine that sort of reflects what we're seeing. There are certain sectors like retail, which fortunately for us, we don't do a huge amount in, but leisure, travel, which have clearly got loads of issues to deal with at the moment, versus other markets that are particularly strong.
What I would say is that in terms of types of jobs, you know, we've had a very strong quarter and month in finance, you know, which is still our largest discipline, but technology still remains our fastest-growing. From a small base, as does healthcare and life sciences. To be honest, other technical disciplines as well of engineering, supply chain, logistics, they remain very strong and you know, it's good to be big in those markets as well. Again, nothing that we've really seen, and we are all over it, frankly, Hans. In terms of productivity gains, I mean, we're always gonna push for more.
To remind you, last year, we had a very significant record for productivity in the business, partly because of the recovery and the speed of that recovery, particularly towards the end of last year, partly because of the experienced hires that we landed in the business. The time it took them to become productive in the business was a lot faster than we can typically expect from a consultant who joins us who has no recruitment experience, clearly. You'd expect that. If we're hiring now 300 people in the quarter, most of whom have no recruitment experience, it will take time for them to become productive. That's always a drag on our productivity.
Clearly, if we slow down that investment in headcounts at any point, then productivity goes up because the tail, if you like, of those that are learning the job, becomes shorter. You'd expect that. What we're particularly excited about, though, in terms of what we might be able to achieve, and this is outside of, you know, the economic answer of where we're going and what happens to the economy the rest of this year and next year and beyond, what structurally we're excited about is that we have rolled out now a global system, a CRM system, which is a Salesforce-based CRM system, and we believe there are some real efficiencies to be gained from that, in terms of the speed that we can do certain activities as a consultant.
You know, there is a large element of the job which, you know, I remember, which is very administrative, is very slow and very tedious, frankly. There is an element of enjoyment as well, which, you know, we have to do, but it takes time and, you know, it's part of the job and all the rest of it, but a good CRM system does score you. Also that CRM system working with various apps. It's helping us target candidates who are likely to want to move and also clients who are likely to be hiring. I think that's very significant.
Rather than literally cold calling, as I would have done 35 years ago, sort of randomly hoping I can hit on a client that happens to have a vacancy, we're a lot more targeted in the activity that we have as well. All of those things I would like to think structurally, aside from what's going on in the economy, that will help productivity in the future. Finally, the other thing that I think is important is the mix. You know, we've been targeting, as you know, certain markets, which we believe have a real high potential for the group. You know, they've significantly made progress over the last few years and a very significant proportion of the total group.
Those markets, typically higher salaries, higher fee rates than some of the markets that were up traditionally are big profit generators. You know, if you like, we've got U.S. and Germany, where the average fee rate is 29%. Salaries, as we all know, are reasonably high versus, you know, back in 2007, where 12% of our profit actually from Italy and Spain came from those two markets, where our average fee rate would be less than 20%, and salaries would be a bit lower. You know, there is a mix impact here of what we're doing as well. That's conscious, but it's also because not just because fee rates, but also the size of those markets that we've been really focused on building a platform.
In terms of the platform and expanding it into new disciplines and so on. Honestly, Hans, yes, there will be, I'm sure a new discipline that we want to do in the Philippines or some of the smaller markets that we've only launched in the last few years. Largely speaking, the platform is built. There are plenty of disciplines that we're too small in, and we need to push ahead with market share gain. We talked about scope a minute ago of the U.S. It's enormous, but it's enormous in Germany, it's enormous in Southeast Asia, Latin America, where we have very little competition, China and so on. It's more about building on what we've got than opening something or launching something significant that's new.
I think really the one sort of standout, which is it certainly will impact the bottom line, which rollouts or new that we're doing is Page Outsourcing, and that's a global project, as you know, which brings together the brands, all three of them, under one roof of Page Outsourcing, which is engaging with clients to outsource their recruitment, either globally or regionally or over several countries or across a large project. That is going particularly well. It will cost us this year rather than make us profit. We'd expect next year it to be starting to make a profit contribution and the year after sort of starting to move towards the same sort of conversion rates as the rest of the group. That is going rightly ahead of plan.
Okay, thanks.
Cheers, Hans.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question today, it's star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question today comes from Tom Sherlock of Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, both. Sorry, apologies. I actually canceled the request for this question, so I'm unsure why that went through, but congratulations. Another set of good results. Fortunately, Anvesh and James both asked the questions I wanted to know. Thank you.
Well, good to hear from you anyways.
Our next question comes from Paul Kirjanovs of Credit Suisse. Your line is open.
Hi. I just had one question today. On U.K., it appears Page Personnel is now outperforming versus Michael Page. If you look at levels sort of sequentially versus 2019, is there a mix shift happening there? Can you talk about sort of the overall dynamics you're seeing in the market?
Yeah, sure. Look, no, I don't think it's sort of mixing. I think it's just the way that possibly the pandemic impacted those two brands in the U.K. As you know, we had fairly onerous lockdowns here. Well, most of us, maybe one or two politicians ignored it, but there were fairly onerous lockdowns here. Clearly, when offices are closed, that tends to impact Page Personnel more than Michael Page because, you know, not only the temps, but even the perm possibly with offices closed, do you have the same level of appetite to, you know, to hire what are relatively junior sub sort of GBP 35K roles into the business? Probably not. It's fair to say Page Personnel was hit harder than most other markets around the world.
Now that offices are open, you know, clearly clients have the freedom therefore to be in the office, there is a big step up in hiring, both in temp and perm. I think it was hit harder during the pandemic. It's coming back off a lower base and recovering, both in temp and perm.
Thank you.
Thank you. As a final reminder, it's star followed by one to ask a question today. We have no further questions in the queue, so I'll hand the call back over to Steve Ingham for closing remarks.
Thank you. As there are no other questions, thank you all for joining us this morning. Our next update to the market will be our interim results on the eighth of August. Thank you, everyone, and enjoy the weather.