ICT: “Covid makes it hard to attract talent”

“In Q1 2021, we saw the trends continuing, including the ongoing strong performance of our nearshoring and project businesses, and at the same time the impact of Covid-19 still weighing on other activities. Moreover, Covid-19 is constraining our recruitment activities, which makes it harder to attract new talent. This in particular contributed to a flat organic revenue development,” says Jos Blejie, CEO of ICT Group. “As expected, the uncertainties related to Covid-19 continue to limit our visibility. Furthermore, the tight labor market continues to pressure organic growth.”

In the first quarter of 2021, the Rotterdam-based software solutions specialist saw its revenue come in at 43.7 million euros, a 5 percent increase compared to the same period last year. This plus is mainly attributable to the acquisitions of Esprit and Yellowstar. Organically, revenue was at the same level as Q1 last year. The labor market remains challenging and ICT foresees recruitment activities still being hampered by Covid-19, which is going to continue pressure organic growth. Because of this, combined with the difficulty to predict the future business impact of the pandemic, the company refrains from giving a full-year outlook.

ICT Netherlands experienced an improvement in productivity levels, mainly in the engineering R&D segment where the automotive activities improved versus the first quarter last year. Covid-19 impacted the public transport activities, including Turnn, and also Improve continued to be affected as the market for trainings is still at low levels. OrangeNXT faced lower project activity levels. The nearshoring activities in Bulgaria continued their strong performance, both in revenue and result. The productivity levels of the Swedish activities are improving versus the first quarter 2020. Also in Sweden, the tight labor market is limiting growth.