PageGroup Q2 2026 TU Earnings Report

PageGroup EPS Results

• Actual EPS: GBX 1.20
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

PageGroup Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

PageGroup Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026 TU
• Date: 8/6/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: N/A
• Conference Call Time: N/A

PageGroup (LON:PAGE) Changes Lives… That’s our PageGroup Purpose, delivered by c.7,300 people in 36 countries, with a gross profit of over £842.6m in 2024. Our four core  PageGroup brands are supported by specialised recruitment teams operating across 25 disciplines. As a FTSE 250 company, a lot has changed since we were set up in 1976 and the Group continues to grow and evolve. What hasn’t changed is our commitment to the success of our clients and candidates, and our own people. PageGroup’s strategy is geared for the long-term. With world-renowned and fully integrated brands, highly trained and motivated consultants, established professional relationships and access to the best candidates, we use our established database and market-leading approach to data and innovation to pursue our objective of being the leading specialist recruitment consultancy in our chosen markets. Our diverse and inclusive culture and robust sustainability framework reflects our commitment to delivering meaningful social and environmental impact and our strategy is linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Our global philosophy is actioned through local deliverables with success measured against transparent targets.

PageGroup Q2 2026 TU Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Q2 gross profit was broadly stable at £197.6 million, down 0.2% in constant currency, although first-half gross profit declined 2.4%.
• Positive Sentiment: Productivity remained strong, with gross profit per fee earner up 5% year over year and reaching its highest quarterly level since 2022; Page Executive delivered record growth of 15%.
• Positive Sentiment: Growth continued in the Americas and Asia-Pacific, including a seventh consecutive growth quarter in the U.S., a fifth in Asia, and strong performances in Colombia, Japan, China, and U.S. construction.
• Negative Sentiment: Trading remained difficult in Europe, particularly France, where gross profit fell 12%, while the U.K. declined 5.3% and the Middle East fell 24%; permanent recruitment continued to lag temporary hiring.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management expects 2026 operating profit to be around company-compiled consensus of £28 million, with cost-control initiatives generating approximately £40 million in annualized savings, while year-end net cash is forecast at £30 million–£40 million.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning. Thank you for attending today's PageGroup Second Quarter Trading Update. My name is Sherry, and I will be your moderator today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call, with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you would like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad.

[Operator]

I would now like to pass the conference over to Kelvin Stagg, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

Thank you, Sherry. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the PageGroup 2026 second quarter trading update. I'm Kelvin Stagg, Chief Financial Officer, and on the call with me is Nick Kirk, Chief Executive Officer. Although I will not read it through, I'd just like to make reference to the legal formalities that are covered in the cautionary statement in the appendix to this presentation, and which will also be available on our website following the call. Despite ongoing challenging market conditions, the group produced a good performance in Q2. Q2 gross profit was GBP 197.6 million, a decline of 0.2% in constant currencies. For the first half, we delivered gross profit of GBP 385.2 million, a decline of 2.4% in constant currencies. We reduced our fee earner headcount by 80 or 1.6% during Q2, mainly in France and Northern Europe.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

Overall, the group ended the quarter with 4,914 fee earners and a total headcount of 6,678. Sorry, 6,679. Despite the challenging conditions, gross profit per fee earner, our measure of productivity, remained high and grew 5% versus Q2 2025. In line with expectations and having paid out the 2025 final dividend of around GBP 10 million in June, net debt at the end of June was around GBP 7 million, in line with Q1. In the first week of July, the cash balance improved to be broadly net flat, and we expect to close the year with around GBP 30 million-GBP 40 million of net cash. I will now give a brief financial review. We reduced our fee earner headcount by 80 or 1.6% during Q2, mainly in France and Northern Europe.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

We remain committed to our strategy and continue to reallocate resources into the areas of the business offering the most significant long-term structural opportunities, such as in Asia. Overall, our focus remains on aligning headcounts in all of our markets to activity levels and balancing near-term productivity with ensuring we are well-placed to take market share as conditions improve. We reduced our non-operations headcount by 42 in Q2 or 2.3%. Despite the challenging macroeconomic conditions, productivity remained high and grew 5% versus Q2 2025. We continued to target higher salary level roles and delivered our highest quarterly productivity since 2022. In the markets where we have experienced improved trading, such as in Asia-Pacific and our U.S. construction business, this was driven by a normalization of conversion of offers to placements, as both candidates and clients became more willing to negotiate and compromise to deliver a successful outcome.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

Our business model focuses on white-collar qualified candidates working in specialist management and leadership roles. Supply of this talent remains a key challenge for our clients, and as a result, our permanent fee rates remain at record levels. I will now present a regional review. Group gross profit declined 0.2% in constant currencies against Q2 2025. Market conditions remain mixed across the group. We delivered a seventh consecutive quarter of growth in the U.S. and a fifth consecutive quarter of growth in Asia. Page Executive delivered a record quarter with growth of 15% against Q2 2025, demonstrating the success of our strategy, and we returned to growth in Southern Europe in Q2. We also saw challenging but stable conditions in Northern Europe, France, and the U.K. Overall, around 50% of the group was in growth in Q2.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

In our largest region, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, which represented 51% of the group, we declined 4.8% on Q2 2025, with mixed results across the region. Temporary recruitment, down 2%, continued to be more resilient than permanent, down 6%. Germany, the group's largest market, which represented 12% of the group, declined by 4% in Q2, albeit against a soft comparator. We saw strong results from our contracting business and Page Executive, but trading was more challenging in our Michael Page permanent recruitment business due to a combination of renewed energy price shocks, ongoing geopolitical tensions, and weak market sentiment. France, our second largest market, declined 12% due to ongoing political and macroeconomic uncertainty. Reflective of market conditions, temporary recruitment, down 7%, continued to outperform permanent, down 16%, where job acquisition per fee earner remained weak in Q2.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

As in the previous quarter, clients have become increasingly selective, slower to make decisions, and more conservative on salary offers. As a result, the recruitment process has become more complex and time to hire has increased. Southern Europe, which represented 14% of the group, returned to growth in Q2. Spain continued to deliver the standout performance, up 9%. Italy grew 7%, driven by a particularly strong performance in Page Executive. Trading in Northern and Central Europe remained more challenging in all markets. The Middle East declined 24% as both client and candidate confidence remained subdued amid the regional conflict. In line with the tougher trading conditions in Q2, we reduced our fee earner headcount by 62, mainly in France and the Netherlands.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

The Americas, which represented 21% of the group, grew 7.2%. North America was up 5%, with the U.S. up 5%, a seventh consecutive quarter of growth, and an improvement on the growth of 1% in Q1. Construction, our largest discipline, continued to deliver the standout result, up 12%. In addition, we saw a return to growth in our second-largest discipline, engineering and manufacturing, up 22% with improving client confidence and high demand for talent, particularly in the aerospace, defense, and electronic sectors. We are yet to see a broad-based recovery with tough conditions in most other disciplines. In Latin America, gross profit was up 10%. Mexico, our largest country in the region, grew 7%, an improvement on the 8% decline in Q1, albeit against the softer comparator. We continue to see ongoing tariff-related uncertainty in this market. Brazil was down 6%. Temporary recruitment, up 12%, continued to outperform permanent, down 14%.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

Ahead of the general election in H2, clients are taking a more cautious approach, postponing both hiring and investment decisions. Colombia, which now represents around 20% of Latin America, was the standout market in the region, delivering a record quarter, up 15%, with another particularly strong performance in our technology-focused consulting business. Elsewhere in Latin America, our remaining countries grew 29% collectively. Fee earner headcount in the region decreased by 33, with the timing of the next intake cohort of fee earners in the U.S. starting in early July. In Asia Pacific, which represented 17% of the group, Q2 gross profit grew 9.4% on 2025. In Asia, which represented 14% of the group, we grew 11%, our fifth consecutive quarter of growth, with nine out of 11 markets growing.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

We continue to see improvements in both candidate and client confidence, which is helping to secure placements, particularly for more senior roles. Greater China was up 17%, an improvement on the growth of 11% in Q1. Mainland China grew 28%, due partly to a soft comparator, but with improved trading across both brands. Customer sentiment remained stable, with increased willingness to make decisions, resulting in improved offer-to-placement conversion rates. Hong Kong was up 2%. Southeast Asia grew 4%, with strong trading conditions across most of our markets in this region. In Japan, where we have invested in fee earners due to the size of the market and its strategic importance, we delivered another standout performance, up 18%. India grew 7%, another record quarter. Australia was flat with stable market conditions. We increased our fee earner headcount by 26 in the quarter, mainly in Japan and India.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

In the U.K., which represented 11% of the group, gross profit declined 5.3%. The market remains tough but stable, with pockets of optimism beginning to appear in Page Executive, interim, and technology. Reflective of market uncertainty, temporary recruitment, up 1%, outperformed permanent, down eight, where we continued to see lower job acquisition levels per fee earner. We reduced our fee earner headcount by 11 in the quarter. I will now provide a summary of our results. Despite ongoing challenging market conditions, the group produced a good performance in Q2. We saw continued growth in Asia Pacific and the Americas, as well as a return to growth in Southern Europe. In total, around 50% of the group was in growth. However, trading remained more challenging across France, Northern Europe, and the U.K.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

In the markets where we experienced improved trading, this was driven by a normalization of conversion of offers to placements as both candidates and clients became more willing to negotiate and compromise to deliver a successful outcome. In the markets where trading remained challenging, we are yet to see any improvement in this metric. We remain committed to our strategy and continue to reallocate resources into markets where we see an improvement in business confidence and activity levels, such as in Asia. The progress we are making in productivity, technological innovation, operational efficiency, and strategic execution demonstrates that our strategy is working and positions us well for future growth.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

We continue to harness the power of Page and our position as the global leader for specialist management and leadership perm recruitment, placing more senior talent at higher salary levels and at higher fee rates, which has driven our highest level of productivity since our record year in 2022 and a record quarter for Page Executive. We have a flexible cost base through our fee earner headcount, which adjusts naturally to market conditions. Alongside this, we continue to control the cost base tightly and have undertaken various programs since the launch of our new strategy to manage it in light of the tougher market conditions. These programs included managing our support headcount, moving our SSCs to more cost-effective locations, closing offices, and reducing management layers. Collectively excluding savings due to the reduction in fee earner headcount, these initiatives have delivered annualized savings of around GBP 40 million.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

This cost base control has continued in 2026, incurring some one-off costs, which we will cover in more detail at the interims. Whilst we have seen an improvement and signs of a normalization in trading in a number of our markets, there still remains a high degree of uncertainty in the outlook for the rest of the year. We have a highly diversified and adaptable business model, a strong balance sheet, and a cost base that is under continuous review. The board currently expects 2026 operating profit to be in line with company compiled consensus of around GBP 28 million.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

Nick and I will now be happy to take any questions you may have.

[Operator]

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. To remove your question, press star two. Again, to ask a question, press star one. As a reminder, if you're using a speakerphone, please remember to pick up your handset before asking a question. We will pause here briefly as questions are registered. Thank you. We will now take our first question from Andy Grobler from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

[Andy Grobler, Financial Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Hi. Good morning. Just a couple from me, if I may. Firstly, on the conversion of offers to placements, which you talked to, which areas are seeing improvement? Are there any areas that are still going backwards on that metric? And broadly across the group, where does that stand versus, either the, well, both the trough and where you would expect it to get to in a normalized market? Thank you. Secondly, just on the U.K., some of the market data was better in June and on a two-year stack, you've made big strides in that region. Are you seeing that improvement through the course of the quarter, and how do you see this pan out through Q3 given changes to government and so forth that are impacting us all? Thank you very much.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

Thanks, Andy. I think I can take those two. In terms of conversion of offers to placements, broadly where we're seeing improvements in results, that's where we're seeing improvements of the conversion of those offers to placements. I suppose where it's most embedded is somewhere like the construction business we have in the U.S., where we've seen a seventh consecutive quarter of growth, and that would now be back up to where it would've been at peak, as you refer to it, probably four out of five. Back to normal levels. You still always get one turned down because account might get multiple offers and will pick another one over your one, et cetera, or you might still get buyback.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

That's certainly returned to more normal levels as it has across many parts of Asia now, where we've had five consecutive quarters of growth, very much back towards where it would've been. I think in your question you said, are there any markets where it's going backwards? I don't think there is. I think probably most of the markets where it's tougher, it's stable, but stable at a lower level. At that level around a three out of five rather than four out of five. I'm thinking markets like France as an example of that. As we start to see more normalization across other markets, we would start to see that rate of conversion improving.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

Indeed, what we've seen as a kind of shape of recovery, if you like, now that we've been able to analyze the recovery we saw in the U.S. with the recovery we've seen also in the broader Americas region now across Asia over the last five quarters, is it tends to be more of a recovery in perm that's driven by conversion and productivity than it is by activity. We haven't seen a huge spike in more jobs, more interviews. It's just the consultants are getting more of a return for the work they're doing because more of the processes that they're managing are resulting in successful outcomes.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

For somewhere like the U.S. construction business now that is, as we said before, seven quarters into a recovery, they are now starting to also see top of the funnel gains as well, and we'll react to that by pulling in some more fee and a headcount selectively as we move through the second half of the year. We come back to then the U.K., yeah, we're pleased to see the result in the U.K. It's been tough in the U.K. for quite a period of time. We're starting to see some pockets of optimism. Areas like Page Executive, interim technology, all performed pretty well in Q2, we're pleased with that. I think it is still relatively fragile is business confidence, and you refer to potentially a change in leadership of the country, and we'll have to wait to see what that means for business.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

I don't know at this stage because I haven't seen any policies. We'll wait and see, but I think what we're doing in the U.K. is very much self-help. We're focusing on the areas where we believe we can operate well. We, as you know, closed our Page Personnel business here back in 2024, so we're now over a year on from that, and we're seeing the results of that. Our productivity in the U.K. was up 11% in Q2, and that's as a result of us trading up and moving more into the Michael Page and Page Exec markets and really putting our resource into those businesses. Yeah, pleased with how the U.K. is going, but still relatively early stages and not back in growth as yet.

[Andy Grobler, Financial Analyst at BNP Paribas]

Great. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now take our next question from Karl Green from RBC. Please go ahead.

[Karl Green, Director of Equity Research at RBC]

Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning, gents. Just a couple from me as well. On the cost-based control measures which you've alluded to in the statement, I know you're going to elaborate on this more at the interim phase, but just kind of any early hints as to the phasing around this in terms of costs going in and then benefits coming out of the other side at this stage. Then the second question, Americas, you did reference Mexico having a soft comp year-on-year. That looks like it's pretty soft actually for the next couple of quarters as well. The question would be, are you confident that we're going to see good levels of like-for-like net fee growth continue in the Americas as you see things at the moment? Thank you.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

Thanks, Karl. I will take the Americas question then pass over to Kelvin for the cost-based question. I think yes, as regards the Americas, we saw 9% growth in the LATAM region in Q2. It is really trading in line with expectations. Mexico is our biggest business there, and as you alluded to, it had a stronger quarter of 7%. Seems to be a bit more improved confidence. We are still waiting on the outcome of the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal between the U.S. and Mexico. But we hear that that is kind of an any time now type situation, so that is positive. Again, what we saw there was growth coming through improved productivity. This, as I said before, this return to normalization of offers converting into placements and productivity in Mexico is up 24%. We were delighted with that.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

Brazil is still a little bit tougher. We are waiting on the results or the outcome of the upcoming election later in the year. That is kind of just put people in a situation where they are holding off on decisions at the moment, but hopefully that will settle down, once the result is known. Colombia is really the success story for us in the Americas at the moment. Another record quarter, over 100 heads, and a strong focus on tech consulting. That was up 15% in Q2, and I do not see any reason why that will soften in the second half of the year. No, I think that certainly our performance across the Americas, LATAM region specifically, is looking good going into the second half.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

I can pick up the cost question. I think we, as always, have got various different activities going on to try and streamline the business in terms of the cost base. This year it is primarily looking at back-office operations. As we have mentioned before, we have got a transformation program running in our HR function. We have just gone live in Asia-Pacific with SAP SuccessFactors, which is an HR system. We are in the process of moving the HR function into the Shared Services Centers around the group. We also have a number of activities ongoing around a location strategy, where we, for legacy reasons, have got people in support functions that are in relatively expensive countries, and we continue to move those roles into our Shared Services Centers in the lower cost locations.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

I expect that the one-off costs relating to all of those activities will be mid-single digit and split broadly 50-50 first half and second half. But we will go into a bit more detail about all of that when we get to the interims.

[Karl Green, Director of Equity Research at RBC]

Great. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Next, we will take questions from James Rowland Clark from Barclays. Please go ahead.

[James Rowland Clark, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Hi. Two short ones, I think. My first is just on the better conversion rates that you're seeing at the moment or that have been ongoing in the U.S. but have improved elsewhere in the group in certain regions. Is that simply candidate confidence or is there something else that's driving that? Is there maybe improved salary offers or anything like that to sort of underline that improvement? Then secondly, just on operating profit unchanged. With the better top-line trends you're seeing, one might have thought that that would be moving up. Is the one-offs the reason it's not? Thank you very much.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

Thanks, James. As regards improving conversion rates for anyone who's been involved in moving jobs, it's a cocktail of things. It's never one simple outcome. It's not just about offering more money or flexibility or even being that one-sided. It's a client situation and a candidate situation where that chemistry has to work. It's two humans in a room. It's about the financials, of course it is. It's about selling the story of a future opportunity and career opportunity for the individual. It's also about that individual feeling connected to the culture of the company. That's why we so strongly feel the role of the consultant, the human in the process, is vital as we move forward.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

I don't think it's down to any one thing at the moment. It will be partly due to better offers on the table. It will be partly due to candidates feeling a bit more comfortable about moving. It will be partly due to clients who have order books and commitments with their customers, and they need to fulfill those commitments and therefore need resource on board. It's always lots and lots of different things. Clearly from our perspective, it's pleasing to see some of those elements starting to be more positive than they have been.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

Yeah. On the operating profit question, the simple answer is yes, it relates to the one-off costs. We normally expect, and we did see about a 70% drop-through from the incremental gross profit, which is essentially the profit share that we'll pay away. 30% is the profit share that we pay to the consultants for the incremental revenue. That will drop through, as you would expect from the gross profit in the first half. With, as I say, mid-single digit one-off costs, that really offset it. Without that, yes, we would have been moving operating profit up.

[James Rowland Clark, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question is from Steve Wolf from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

[Steve Wolf, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Good morning, both. Just a quick two from me, one on Germany and your thoughts on the reforms that are happening there and how that sort of fits in with investment in the business there. Secondly, your peer on Friday mentioned they had seen some softness in the perm market creeping in. Your statement definitely doesn't suggest that at all. I was wondering whether you would be kind enough to perhaps marry the two comments together.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

Yeah, sure. I can take those. Germany, it feels a bit of a mixed picture around the reforms, Steve, because I guess when we talk to our team locally, it's probably a little bit like AI headlines, is that there's many of them, and they're very conflicting. I guess that's where we are really in Germany, is that no one seems to kind of fully know the impact of the investment. Is it just plugging holes in the existing budget, or is it genuinely new investment that will create growth and therefore jobs? At the moment, our focus really is around what we're doing. The business there performed, as we said, performed well, but we wanted to make it clear that it was against a soft comparator. Activity levels and sentiment are pretty stable for us in Germany.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

As you probably know, our business is split around about 50% perm and then 50% non-perm, and of that, it's split 10% temp, 40% contracting. The contracting business is the part that's going particularly well for us. We saw 10% growth there in Q2 focused around finance and technology. We also experienced some growth in our number of runners, which speaks well for the second half of the year. Overall in Germany, we were pleased with the results, but I'm not particularly linking that to any element around the reforms, et cetera. Because unless you've read something that I've not read, we haven't actually seen any concrete evidence of that as yet, and we're certainly not getting that feedback from clients saying that they're recruiting ahead of the reforms. I think it's still a little bit wait and see.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

As regard to your next question, probably the two health warnings I'll call out, because we have them in the statement, is that on perm in the U.K., still a little bit tougher, and perm in France is still a little bit tougher. Outside of that, though, no, not at all. We're a predominantly perm business, and therefore, if our results are getting better, it's because perm's getting better. Outside of those two, perm's going well for us.

[Steve Wolf, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Perfect. Thank you both very much. Cheers.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

Cheers.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now take our next question from Abi Bell from UBS. Please go ahead.

[Abi Bell, Equity Research Associate Director at UBS]

Hi, both. Morning. Just a quick two from me. In the release, you've commented on a few soft comparatives across a few of your markets. Is there anything we should be aware of heading into the Q3 or the next few quarters in terms of soft comparatives? Secondly, could you give us a bit more color on the Page Executive performance? You comment on it driving a strong 15% growth this quarter. Could you comment on any of the regions or end markets that drove this? Also, where are you planning to scale or invest this part of the business by regional vertical? Thank you.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

I don't know off the top of my head if there's any particular soft comparatives that we'll be calling out for H2 just immediately. Maybe whilst I'm talking about Page Executive, Kelvin can have a think, there's nothing immediate that's coming to mind. In Page Executive, let's talk about that for a moment. When we were developing our strategy, it was the area that the exec board really kind of came together on and felt very strongly that we have this, I would say, unique opportunity as a global recruiter with a really strong brand to occupy what we refer to as the market gap, which is that space above the level that Michael Page operate, which in GBP would be, say, up to about GBP 100,000-GBP 120,000 basic salary.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

The market below the big global SHREK firms, the Korn Ferry, the Spencer Stuart, the Heidrick, et cetera. Really for them, anything below probably GBP 300,000-GBP 350,000 basic salary. There's a big space up there, and what we found is that there really isn't any established player in the market, certainly not a global player. There's lots of boutiques locally. We remain more convinced than ever that the strategy around Page Executive is the right one. It's helping to drive up average fee rates. It's helping to drive up average placement rates, et cetera. Overall, yeah, very happy with the performance. All regions, frankly, Abi, all regions performed strongly. There's not really one that I would pick out. Everywhere performed well in Page Executive.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

As a business, it's 92% perm, so it is very perm heavy. The fee, the big, when they land, they make a big difference at a country level. Clearly, if they don't, they also make a big impact at a country level. As regards headcount, we grow Page Executive very much as we grow the group, we look at activity levels, we look at opportunity, we hire into those markets, we hold headcounts where we're still waiting for the productivity to catch up. What was nice about Q2 was we were able to grow headcount by 5% whilst growing productivity by 10%, and that's the perfect mix for us. If we can be growing headcount and productivity at the same time, it speaks to better market conditions.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

In terms of maybe a little bit more color if it helps, our top three practices globally are manufacturing, consumer, and finance. They're the big three for us, albeit we do operate in others, they're the biggest three in terms of mix. No, I was delighted with the performance of Page Executive, hopefully we'll continue to see that through the remainder of the year.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

Yeah, looking at comps, Abi, I don't see there's anything particularly as an outlier in Q3 or Q4. The comps do get tougher, particularly in Q4, which sort of reflects where the business started to recover at the latter end of last year. Maybe at an individual country level, there might be one or two relatively small ones, certainly at a regional level, no. The comps are all fairly steady.

[Abi Bell, Equity Research Associate Director at UBS]

That's it clear. Thank you both.

[Nick Kirk, CEO at PageGroup]

Thank you.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. There are no questions waiting at this time. I will pass the conference back over to Kelvin for any further remarks.

[Kelvin Stagg, CFO at PageGroup]

Thank you, Sherry. As there are no further questions, thank you all for joining us this morning. Our next update to the market will be our 2026 interim results on the 6th of August, 2026. Thank you, and have a good morning.

[Operator]

Thank you. That concludes the PageGroup second quarter trading update. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect from the line.

Participants

Executives

• Kelvin Stagg, CFO
• Nick Kirk, CEO

Analysts

• Andy Grobler, Financial Analyst at BNP Paribas
• Karl Green, Director of Equity Research at RBC
• James Rowland Clark, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays
• Steve Wolf, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
• Abi Bell, Equity Research Associate Director at UBS