SThree plc (STREF) Q1 2026 Sales/Trading Call Prepared Remarks Transcript

SA Transcripts159.01K FollowersFollow5ShareSaveCommentsPlay Earnings CallPlay Earnings Call SThree plc (STREF) Q1 2026 Sales/Trading Call March 17, 2026 4:30 AM EDT Company Participants Timo Lehne - CEO & Executive DirectorAndrew Beach - CFO & Executive Director Presentation Timo LehneCEO & Executive Director Good morning, everyone, and welcome to SThree's Q1 Trading Update of FY '26. I'm joined by our CFO, Andy Beach. And today, we will give you an overview of our Q1 performance. And as you may have seen, we have also made an announcement regarding Andy's position at SThree, which we will cover shortly. After our update, we will be happy to take questions. FY '26 has started in line with our expectations with Q1 consistent with the outlook we shared at our full year results. We're seeing continued stabilization across the business with ongoing momentum in U.S.A. and Japan and a significant improvement in the year-on-year rate of decline in group net fees. This reflects the conclusion of an important contract renewal period for us alongside encouraging new business performance that is broadly consistent year-on-year. Significantly, this performance highlights much higher productivity and improved operational efficiency. We have delivered this output with a much lower headcount. What we see is that our teams are both busier with higher activity, both -- but importantly, much more effective, delivering more placements per head. We've talked for 3 years about the importance of productivity alongside the implementation of our TIP, and it is encouraging to see this coming through with our strongest Q1 since FY 2022. Our performance as well has been achieved against the backdrop of ongoing macroeconomic volatility, including geopolitical uncertainty and rapid technological change, which continues to influence business priorities and investment decisions in our end markets. However, what we are seeing is that as workforce needs evolve in response to these factors, more organizations are turning to partners