The report shows that the company’s unique position as the only pure-play, global STEM staffing specialist, with our commitment to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and flexible working, is delivering good overall growth in our chosen markets with a record £60m profit performance in the financial year.
It outlines our re-focused strategy, which will further fuel our growth as we set up to scale the business effectively.
Mark Dorman, Chief Executive Officer at SThree, said: “Our purpose is central to everything we do as a business and is why we exist, ‘bringing skilled people together to build the future’.
“The scale of the growth and change, as a result of the need for STEM skills going forward, should not be underestimated. Addressing some of the biggest issues, such as climate change and the huge demographic shifts, is just the start. Skilled people are needed to solve these global challenges and drive the future. This creates a huge opportunity as many of those skills, while still in high demand, are also in short supply.”
Alex Smith, Chief Financial Officer at SThree, added: “The strength of our model has enabled us to deliver another year of strong performance in 2019.
“This performance is a result of the hard work delivered both strategically and operationally, and we continue to move closer to delivering on our vision of being the number one STEM recruiter in the best STEM markets.”
Our international markets now account for 86% of our generated net fees with the USA, Continental Europe and Asia Pacific & Middle East growing strongly in 2019.
German businesses have a robust focus on STEM skill sets. This staffing market is the fourth largest in the world, and has seen consistent revenue growth in recent years, with our net fees growing 9%.
In the Netherlands our net fees rose by 8%, driven by our Engineering market. In the US we experienced strong growth of 9% in net fees, with the region’s STEM staffing market estimated to be worth circa £34.5bn.
Our Asia Pacific & Middle East business delivered growth of 12% in the year. This was driven largely by our excellent Japan business which grew 43%. Japan is an important market for the Group where we have a small but fast-growing business providing us with substantial opportunity for further growth.
The UK’s STEM staffing market is driven by an economy that relies on services and high-end technology, with further demand likely to come for STEM professionals in green technology in order to meet pledges on climate change. The region remains a strategic priority.
Find out more about how we’re ‘bringing skilled people together to build the future’ in our Annual Report here.
