Gattaca plc (LON:GATC) Chief Executive Officer Matthew Wragg caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss financial highlights, growth opportunities, what’s driving achievements, employee engagement and cultural recognition, and what we can expect from the business in the next 6-12 months.
Q1: Matthew, Gattaca results just published, could you walk us through the financial highlights for the year and your thoughts around the decision on the dividend?
A1: So, pleased to report we’ve come in marginally ahead of our market guidance, we’ve come in at just over £2.9 million PBT. Despite the tough market conditions, pleasingly our contract NFI grew 3% over the year and actually grew as a contractor base about 8% in the calendar year so far, which is the first time we’ve organically grown that in quite a number of years, which is really, really pleasing to see.
Perm was back 20% like for like, 30 plus percent in all, which included one major programme but that 20% is in line with a pretty subdued market at this moment in time.
Cash has remained strong at just over £20 million, which is accounting for a very large percentage of our market cap at the moment and yet we’ve confirmed 2.5p dividends, same as we did last year, to go out to shareholders later this year.
Q2: What near-term growth opportunities do you see with the new Business Development team? How do you think you’ll stay competitive in key markets?
A2: I think to be competitive, you’ve got to be super focused, that’s what we’ve been doing over the last 12 months is really making sure that we are focused, scaled, and our brand is really well positioned in markets where we either are or can become the main player. So, being super focused will really help with that and over the last 12 -18 months, we’ve really been refining that in the organisation to be there so that will help.
I think the Business Development investment has been great to see both as a new central function to help with larger scale opportunities and we’ve been seeing the bid-win conversion improve on that and the size of the pipeline. That will continue for quarter-on-quarter for years to come. We’ve also been investing in our total sales force around there, go-to-market and sales capability.
So, it’s been a good year as we continue to increase our capability as a business focused on markets, which, frankly, there are markets which have huge amount of opportunity. Every market has a slightly different level of confidence at this moment in time, but there’s huge opportunity and ones which we’ve already got solid reputations in, which is great.
Q3: Looking at the 100% success rate in re-bids and the improved client and candidate satisfaction, can you just explain for us what’s driven those achievements?
A3: I think in previous ones of these, I’ve shared that over the last few years, we’ve been through a lot of change a few years ago and in the last couple of years, we’ve been just making sure that business is absolutely externally focused, rebuilding that corporate memory, and frankly, just making it easier for all of our colleagues to focus on their customer, know what we’re doing, know how we do it, know why we do it, and make sure that our customers know that as well. We’re a good business, and we’ve got really good people. We’re just trying to make it easier for them to give the fantastic service to our customers so that’s been great. That’s just an iterative ongoing bit as we continue to build the momentum that we have in the organisation.
In addition to that, we obviously, a couple of years ago, had a big tech stack overhaul, and we’re starting to utilise the benefits of that now. So, we’ve invested again this year in some bolt-on products, which have really enhanced the customer experience, improved the candidate journey, made it easier for us to work with, make our customers more informed and more engaged.
So, I think all of that comes together to put us in a good position. We’re giving a great service to our customers, both clients and candidates.
Q4: I see that employee engagement and attrition have improved, along with cultural recognition. What initiatives were the most impactful in driving these changes, do you think?
A4: A little bit of everything, probably, I think it’s been a major focus for us from day one. We’re a people business, and the S part of ISG is crucial, both in and externally and I think having a really strong culture now is just our BAU and something that we now obsess over, rather than trying to fix.
I don’t think there’s a single one aspect that has made that happen, I think it’s lots of little bits consistently and very authentically. I think we’ve massively improved and increased the level of communications so being really clear on who we are, what we’re about, what great looks like, and being really open about this, and frankly, anything else within the business.
I’m a big believer that the more people that know what you’re trying to be and why, the more chance you’ve got of actually delivering it. So I think that’s been a lot of little bits coming together.
It’s been lovely for the group to get some of the external recognition. We won two awards for culture in this financial year and that’s just a great nod to everyone who is really passionate about the organisation, who is working hard to make us a better and better place. So, that’s really good to see, and nice to see the confidence and the mojo in the business back as well, which is fantastic.
Q5: Given the macroeconomic challenges, what can we expect from Gattaca in the next 6-12 months, especially in balancing contractor growth and permanent recruitment?
A5: Well, that’s a bit of a cheeky question, isn’t it? We’re a week away from the UK budget and two weeks away from the US election so the macro environment is a challenging one, and there’s some significant unknowns.
Clearly, I hope, whatever the results and outcomes for next week and two weeks’ time, the one bit that they hopefully give is that just give us all clarity so that markets just know what game they’re playing. Therefore, we can all crack on with it and hopefully, from a client and candidate point of view, increase the confidence.
I think, to be honest, though, irrelevant of that, we are super focused on just making sure that we become better and better week after week, no matter what the market confidence is like.
So, we committed this time last year that we really wanted to focus on growing our contract book, and I’m really pleased to see that we’ve done that and we’re going to absolutely continue to do that.
We’re not banking on the market suddenly come flying back, we think it could be subdued still for a little while but we’re going to make sure that we continue to get stronger and stronger, which is what we have been doing over the last nine months or so to keep capitalising on it.
So we’re really focused on our service lines, our geographies, and our sectors, and we’re just focused on that and keep trying to be the best organisation we can be.
