The company issued a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2020 and the three months ended 31 March 2021 that has confirmed “the momentum achieved in the second half of 2020 has continued into 2021, and the group has made a strong start to the year”. 

A company statement said it was beginning to see the benefits of loosened lockdown restrictions coupled with the UK’s successful vaccination roll-out programme, leading to improving market conditions.

Further, it said, the group was seeing “a stronger recruitment pipeline developing, and it is anticipated that PeoplePlus will benefit from the incremental increase in government spending on re-skilling and transitioning the national workforce back into employment, following the end of the furlough scheme”. 

Highlights of the financials included:

• Q1 2021 trading ahead of management expectations “provides increased confidence in the full year”
• Strong demand in the food distribution, e-commerce and logistics markets in H2 2020 drove robust performance “in spite of Covid-19”
• The board anticipates that trading for the current financial year is likely to be ahead of expectations.

The statement said the group was now seeing increased activity from clients in some sectors “most adversely” affected by the pandemic, such as manufacturing, retail and convenience foods.

Staffline’s full-year results will be published in June.

• Comment below on this story. Or let us know what you think by emailing us at [email protected] or tweet us to tell us your thoughts or share this story with a friend.