Spring Group has announced increased profits for 2008.

Profits before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 15% to £9.2m for the year ending 31 December 2008, compared with £8m for 2007.

Revenues were up 19.3% to £516.5m (2007: £432.8m). Operating profit increased 8.5% to £6.4m (2007: £5.9m).

UK revenue rose to £424m from £393m in 2007. However, as a result of opening seven new offices overseas, net fee income from outside the UK now represents 25% of the group total.

Commenting on the results, Peter Searle, Spring Group’s chief executive, says: “In 2008, Spring produced strong growth in net fee income and operating profit despite the challenging market conditions. Our strategy of diversifying geographically continued during the year with office openings in the US, Australia, Singapore and mainland Europe. In addition, we continued to invest in future growth without detriment to our balance sheet which is robust with over £40m of cash at the year end.

“While there is a great deal of uncertainty in the global market place for 2009, we believe that our bias towards contract recruitment, our strong RPO offering with long term contracts and our healthy balance sheet equip us to weather the current markets and provide the platform for future growth.”