Brian Wilkinson, chief executive of Gattaca, says the engineering and technical recruiter’s current focus is on an international consultant recruitment drive as it seeks to moves into larger premises at its sites across the globe.

In a wide ranging discussion with Recruiter this morning, Wilkinson said he also expects greater clarity on the government’s Brexit negotiating position following today’s High Court ruling that government will need seek Parliament’s approval for triggering Article 50, the process for starting Brexit.

Gattaca’s preliminary annual results revealed group revenue rose 23% year-on-year. With regards to growing overseas headcount, Wilkinson said the group has already taken on additional space in eight of the 10 cities it operates in.

“So in the US, in Dallas, in Toronto, Cape Town – in all these cities we are taking on bigger offices [to] fit in more consultants, so massive opportunities for people to move with the group if they are already with us. 

“In Dallas we have taken on a facility that will house 85 consultants, which is an increase on our previous office that could only take 30, so we have got some big growth plans.

“We’re doubling in size in Kuala Lumpur. We’ve doubled the office space in Toronto.”

However closer to home, Wilkinson reports a slowdown in time to hire among clients following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union in June.

“In line with our peer group, we have seen a slowdown in the UK in recent months since the referendum vote and that’s coming through in extended time to hire; so the time of a first interview being arranged and an offer being made has really stretched out. I think that’s not surprising. Companies are a little bit uncertain about the future so they are delaying hiring decisions.”

But Wilkinson welcomed this morning’s developments concerning a High Court ruling that will mean Parliament must vote on whether to trigger Article 50.

“That will be very helpful because it will enable the market to actually understand what the government’s negotiating position is and they will be much more able to take a view on whether that’s positive or negative for their business. 

“The more information and the more transparency there is from a business point of view the better. Whether it’s good for us as a negotiating position is another question.”

As for the group’s increase in revenue, Wilkinson attributes this in part to a new business unit called Engineering Technology, brought about by what the group sees as a convergence between engineering and technology.

“The merger of Matchtech and Networkers enabled us to take a very holistic view of the market and we saw that engineering and technology are beginning to converge as the Internet of Things takes off. There are now 80 times more machines connected to the internet than people.

“Off the back of that we took a brave decision to create a new business unit which we called Engineering Technology. This enables us to offer our engineering clients, automotive, rail, maritime – traditional heavy industries – the opportunity to acquire the high-end software development skills they need to take advantage of connectivity through autonomous car programmes and various Internet of Things projects. That’s been a great success. It’s our fastest growing business unit.”

Gattaca results at a glance:

                                                              2016                                   2015

                                                 Statutory      Underlying      Statutory     Underlying

                                                     £m                  £m               £m                 £m

Revenue                                      617.6              616.9           502.3             622.8

Net fee income (NFI)                     73                   72.4             54.8               72.2

Profit from operations                    15.1                21.4             12.4               21.2

Profit before tax                             15.1                20.4             11.3               19.7

Basic earnings per share               32.1p                                  31p 

Diluted earnings per share             31p                                     29.6p 

Final dividend                                 17p                                     16.32p 

Total dividend                                 23p                                     22p 

Net debt at end of period              £25m                                  £33.6m 

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