PRE-tax profits at Belfast IT firm Kainos doubled in the six months since the introduction of the coronavirus lockdown, the company announced on Monday.
The digital services specialist recorded a profit before tax of £24 million for the six months ending September 30 2020, a 100 per cent improvement in its first half results from last year.
Chief executive Brendan Mooney said while Covid-19 had played a part in the acceleration of business, he said the greater part of the growth was down to the long-term trend toward digital transformation across both the public and private sectors.
“If you look at our revenues, out of £107m in the first half of this year, nearly £5m might be linked to Covid projects, so 2-3% of our business,” he said.
Public sector and healthcare contracts remain a core source of revenue for the company, accounting for just over 60 per cent of turnover.
Income from the commercial sector took a hit early in the pandemic, but recovered toward the end of the six months. Overall, revenue from the private sector dropped by 15 per cent over the six months.
Despite that drop, the chief executive said the company’s order book remains much more balanced across the public and private spheres than in recent years.
“I’m particularly very pleased that over the past five years we have more than doubled our public sector business, but it has gone from being 60 per cent of our revenue to 45 per cent of our revenue,” said Mr Mooney.
Beyond the bottom line, the pandemic has had a transformative effect on the Kainos operation, which now employs 1,729 people in 15 global locations.
Mr Mooney said while the firm had reopened its offices in September, 97 per cent of staff were choosing to work from home.
He said a recent survey showed that 85 per cent of company employees want to work from home at least three-days a week in the future.
But he said Kainos will still go ahead with plans to develop a flagship Belfast headquarters on the former Moviehouse Cinema on the Dublin Roads.
But it could be 2024 before the £40m 2.5-year project is ultimately completed.
Kainos is currently spread across eight buildings in the city.
The company had placed 131 staff on furlough early in the pandemic, but all have now returned to work. Kainos said it had also repaid all support payment back to the UK Government.
Recruitment is still very much on the agenda for the IT firm. It had 150 roles advertised at the end of October.
The company has added 96 people in the UK and Ireland since last year, with its north American operation more than doubling to 110 people.
In June, Kainos announced plans to create 133 jobs in Indianpolis by the end of 2024.
It’s part of the company’s increasingly global strategy.
Revenue from outside the UK surged by 54 per cent in the past six months, now accounting for 26 per cent of total revenue.
