International recruiter Empresaria says it is making “excellent progress” in a trading update.

Full year revenues were £208m compared with £148m in 2007.

Full year net fee income was £51m, up from £42m in the previous year.

According to the update, Empresaria’s activities in construction and property services grew strongly in 2008, driven by demand within transport and infrastructure.

In Germany, its subsidiary Headway achieved like-for-like growth in revenues of 7% over the year, although business declined in the last quarter, reflecting the impact of a weakening German economy.

Empresaria’s rest of the world division grew revenues and net fee income in 2008 significantly ahead of the previous year, through a combination of start-ups and small acquisitions made in 2006 and 2007.

In South America, Empresaria added that Alternattiva made a useful contribution in its first full-year trading as part of its Group.  

The update said revenues still increased during the fourth quarter of the year which in part reflects the concentration within the group on temporary staffing operations (75% of net fee income in 2008).

The board expects profit, adjusted for goodwill amortisation and exceptional items, for the year ended 31 December 2008 to be in line with current market  expectations long term is confident that trends underlying specialist recruitment, which include liberalisation of labour markets, demographic changes, skill shortages and demand for flexible labour solutions, will benefit the group and provide exciting growth potential. 

Preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2008 should be released on 31 March 2009.