Gattaca plc (LON:GATC), the specialist staffing business, has announced its financial results for the six months ended 31 January 2025.
Financial Highlights
| Continuing operations | 2025 H1 | 2024 H1(restated2) | Variance |
| Revenue (£m) | 193.5 | 187.6 | +3% |
| Net Fee Income (NFI)1 (£m) | 18.9 | 19.4 | -3% |
| Operating profit (£m) | 0.5 | 0.5 | – |
| Underlying profit before tax3 (£m) | 1.0 | 1.2 | -15% |
| Profit before tax (£m) | 0.8 | 1.0 | -22% |
| Profit after tax (£m) | 0.5 | 0.8 | -34% |
| Profit/(loss) after tax from discontinued operations | 0.1 | (0.5) | – |
| Group profit after tax | 0.6 | 0.2 | +181% |
| Basic earnings per share (pence) | 2.0 | 0.7 | +182% |
| Net cash (£m) | 16.8 | 22.3 | -19% |
| Interim dividend (pence) | 1.0 | nil |
Highlights
| · | Group NFI of £18.9 million, a decrease of 3% year-on-year (“YoY”) | |
| o | UK NFI down 2% at £18.7 million (2024 H12: £19.1 million). | |
| o | Energy team performed strongly with 17% YoY growth reflecting our strategic investment into headcount focused on the sector which we continue to make. | |
| o | Infrastructure teams grew by 8%, with particularly strong growth within the Water sector as the UK focuses on improving water infrastructure quality. | |
| o | Contract vs Statement of Work (“SoW”) vs Permanent & Other Fee split 74% / 6% / 20% of Group NFI (2024 H12: 71% / 6% / 23%). | |
| o | Contract NFI up 1% YoY, exiting 2025 H1 with a growing contract book. | |
| o | Permanent & Other Fees NFI down 14% YoY, due to continued challenging market conditions. 2025 H1 was up 6% on 2024 H2, reflecting sequential growth. | |
| o | Gattaca Projects SoW NFI was flat YoY, as new client acquisitions offset delays, with a shift to shorter term programmes linked to the public sector spending review. | |
| · | Group continuing underlying profit before tax of £1.0m (2024 H12: £1.2m). | |
| · | Total sales headcount of 273 at the end of the period down 4% versus 31 July 2024 and 11% down versus 31 January 2024; rebalancing in our Energy and Business Development teams whilst managing headcount in slower growth sectors has resulted in NFI per head up 13% YoY. | |
| · | Net cash of £16.8 million (31 January 2024: £22.3 million) due to reduction in trade creditors as a result of contractor payroll timings, and the 2024 final dividend paid in the period. | |
| · | Reintroduction of Interim dividend of 1.0 pence per share (2024 H1: £nil pence). | |
Strategic update
Continued emphasis on developing the four identified strategic priorities for sustainable profitable growth:
External Focus
| · | Maturing of our investment in Energy team headcount during 2025 H1 resulted in YoY NFI growth of 17%. |
| · | New Director of Marketing in place, providing a new approach and perspective. Focus on enhancing the Group’s CRM strategy, improving the contractor journey and experience. |
| · | Retained a major Solutions accounts in the period which were out to market. Growing business development pipeline. |
| · | Client feedback rating of 9.3 in 2025 H1, increased from 8.8 in FY24. Candidate feedback rating at 8.8 in 2025 H1 reduced from 9.0 for FY24. |
Culture
| · | People engagement remains stable at 8.3 for 2025 H1 (FY24: 8.1) and attrition maintained at 30% at 31 January 2025, demonstrating our focus on culture is fully embedded in the business. |
| · | Winner of the 2024 REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) “Sustainability Initiative of the Year” award, and highly commended for EDI work in 2024 Business Culture Awards. |
| · | Launched the Materna Fund, providing financial support to students studying Engineering at Portsmouth University. |
Operational Performance
| · | Average NFI per sales head has increased by 9%, and by 13% per total head YoY. |
| · | Successfully launched a series of customer focused automations, which will result in streamlined processes on the back of our digital transformation. |
Cost Rebalancing
| · | Improved our ratio of sales to support staff by 2% pts to 71:29 (2024 H1: 69:31). |
| · | Multi-year extensions confirmed with key platform providers resulting in reduced annual fees. |
| · | 3% reduction in underlying administrative cost YoY. |
Outlook
The persistent macroeconomic headwinds impacting the broader recruitment sector have demonstrably affected both client demand and candidate sentiment, reducing volume and extending recruitment timelines. This has acted as a headwind on our recent performance. Specifically, permanent recruitment remains subdued, and we anticipate this trend to continue in the medium term. In response, our strategic focus remains on expanding our contractor base, which has shown greater resilience, investing in core markets where we see growth opportunity, alongside rigorous proactive cost management.
Group guidance for FY25 continuing underlying profit before tax remains at £3 million.
Commenting, Matthew Wragg, Chief Executive Officer of Gattaca said:
“We are pleased to report a robust 2025 H1 performance, achieved through proactive management of the market challenges, with a great team who are starting to see the tangible results of our strategic investments. We have retained our customer base, further improved our performance per head, continued to grow our contractor book, are seeing the results of our strategic investments and are confident in achieving our full year PBT expectations.
We will drive continued growth in our core markets throughout the second half, aiming for a strong year-end. We are confident in our ability to navigate market conditions through operational efficiency, cost discipline, and a focus on productivity whilst maintaining high engagement.”
The following footnotes apply, unless where otherwise indicated, throughout these Interim Results:
1. NFI is calculated as revenue less contractor payroll costs.
2. 2024 H1 results have been restated for the treatment of the US-based operations as discontinued.
3. Continuing underlying results exclude the NFI and profit/(loss) before taxation of discontinued operations (2025 H1: £0.1m, 2024 H12: £(0.5)m), non-underlying items within administrative expenses primarily related to restructuring costs (2025 H1: £0.3m, 2024 H12: £0.3m), amortisation of acquired intangibles (2025 H1: £0.0m, 2024 H1: £0.0m), and exchange gains from revaluation of foreign assets and liabilities (2025 H1: £0.1m, 2024 H12: £0.1m).
