AGM Statement and H1 Trading Update

28 July 2021

STAFFLINE GROUP PLC

("Staffline", the "Company", or the "Group")

AGM Statement and H1 Trading Update

Staffline, the recruitment and training group, provides the following trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2021 ahead of its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") at 9.00am today. As noted in the Company's Notice of AGM announcement, shareholders will not be able to attend the meeting in person.

H1 Financial Highlights (on a Continuing and Pre-IFRS16 basis)^*

^* The figures are unaudited, provisional and will be published in mid-September

AGM Statement

At the meeting, Ian Lawson, Non-executive Chairman of Staffline, will make the following statement:

"Trading has continued to be strong across the first six months of the year to 30 June 2021 and is ahead of expectations with all three of Staffline's core divisions delivering a solid performance in the first half.  This, coupled with the benefits of the Group's cost reduction measures implemented in 2020, in addition to securing new higher margin business, continues to underpin Underlying operating profit growth.

Revenue for H1 2021 is expected to be £450.7 million (H1 2020: £430.3 million), up 4.7% with Gross Profit expected to be £39.0 million (H1 2020: £34.2 million), up 14%, a significant improvement year-on-year and a positive trend in the gross margin.  

The Group is expected to report a net cash position of £20.9m at 30 June 2021 (30 June 2020: net debt £(36.2) million). This is principally due to the net proceeds of the equity raise of £44.4m in June 2021, VAT payment relief of £40.7m still to be repaid, c. £15m of timing benefits which are expected to unwind and further improvements in trading cash flow and cash collection efficiency, which have generated an additional c.£10m.  The equity and debt refinancing have transformed the Company's balance sheet and repositioned the Group for the medium term.

Recruitment GB performed strongly throughout the first half across food, logistics and e-commerce, with additional margin gains arising from new business wins in online food distribution and the effect of exiting legacy lower margin contracts. This was achieved despite challenges in the specialist driving division due to the widely reported acute labour shortages. Recruitment Ireland has delivered a strong six months, buoyed by good trading in its core Northern Ireland business alongside tight cost control and continued growth in the Republic of Ireland. Finally, the Group's PeoplePlus division also reported an excellent performance from its core 'employability' division, ensuring the business generated an Underlying operating  profit for the first six months of the year compared to a loss in the comparable period in 2020.

Overall, the Board and management team are pleased with both the operational and financial performance for the six months to 30 June 2021. Whilst there remains economic uncertainty as we enter H2 2021 and ongoing headwinds relating to the pandemic, the Group has and will benefit from the loosening of lockdown restrictions across the UK and Ireland.

The Board remains confident in Staffline's robust operating model, and, coupled with the strengthening of its financial position in the first half of 2021, the Group remains well placed in the medium term."

Notice of results

The Group expects to report its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2021 on 14 September 2021.

Enquiries:

Market Abuse Regulation:

For the purposes of MAR, Article 2 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1055 and the UK version of such implementing regulation, the person responsible for arranging for the release of this Announcement on behalf of the Company is Daniel Quint, Chief Financial Officer.

About Staffline

Providing workforce solutions

Staffline is the UK's market leading Recruitment and Training group. It has three divisions:

Recruitment GB

Staffline is a leading provider of flexible blue-collar workers, supplying c.37,000 staff per day on average to around 450 client sites, across a wide range of industries including agriculture, supermarkets, drinks, driving, food processing, logistics and manufacturing.

Recruitment Ireland 

The Recruitment Ireland business is a leading end to end solutions provider operating across twenty industries, ten branch locations, fifteen onsite customer locations, supplying c.5,000 staff per day on average, and offering RPO, MSP, temporary and permanent solutions across the island of Ireland.

PeoplePlus Division

PoplePlus is leading skills and employability business with a clear purpose to help people transform their lives, get jobs and keep jobs, and develop their careers. We work with employers to develop workforces of the future, and with central, local and devolved governments to support their economic and social policy agendas