Brightwork Group, the Glasgow and Edinburgh based recruitment specialist, saw turnover rise by 3.6 per cent to £32.65m in the year to December 2014.
Gross profit jumped by 9.8 per cent to £4.02m. As a result of a significant investment in headcount, support staff, training and marketing, however, pre-tax profit was down 14.1 per cent to £916,000 compared to £1.059m in 2013.
MD, Anthony Knight, said: “Our investment in people is a medium-term play as we grow the business, and we expect it to pay-off for us in the coming years. We needed to invest in infrastructural functions such as human resources, marketing, training and development and central corporate sales last year.
“We are in the process now of planning some key strategic changes in the business which we believe will enhance significantly our ability to grow further, both organically and as a result of acquisitions which are very likely to be of businesses based south of the border, ideally in the care, catering and facilities sectors.
“We are pleased with the progress which has been made at Quality Link Recruitment (QLR), the respected Scottish staffing and event management service which we acquired in 2013.
“We have enhanced significantly Brightwork's offering to the catering and hospitality sectors. At the same time we have learned a great deal about how best to make acquisitions work successfully and, as a result, our aim continues to be a doubling of pre-tax profits by the end of 2017.”
The group, which employs 60 people, up from 52 in the previous year, is run by recruitment experts Charles Turner, Chief Operating Officer, and Anthony Knight, was established in 2006.
Since then it has established itself as a major player in drinks and industrial recruiting, supplying thousands of workers every year to household name Scottish enterprises.
It has also built up a thriving specialist recruitment arm, BWSR, focusing on the professional, technical and managerial sectors. Turnover in this division has risen substantially since its inception in 2008.