Brightwork Group, the Glasgow and Edinburgh based recruitment specialist, is on the hunt for acquisitions South of the border.

The group has reported that turnover rose by 3.6 per cent to £32.6million in the year to December 2014.

Pre-tax profit was down 14 per cent to £916,000 from £1.06m, but gross profit was up almost 10per cent to £4m, as the year saw significant investment in headcount and support staff.

Anthony Knight, managing director, said: "Our investment in people is a medium-term play as we grow the business, and we expect it to pay off for us in the coming years. We needed to invest in infrastructural functions such as human resources, marketing, training and development and central corporate sales last year."

The group which employs 60, up from 52 in the previous year, was established nine years ago and is run by Mr Knight and chief operating officer Charles Turner.

It has established itself in drinks and industrial recruiting, and has also built up a thriving specialist recruitment arm, BWSR, focusing on the professional, technical and managerial sectors.

Mr Knight said:"We are in the process now of planning some key strategic changes in the business which we believe will enhance significantly our ability to grow further, both organically and as a result of acquisitions which are very likely to be of businesses based south of the border, ideally in the care, catering and facilities sectors."

He said the group was pleased with progress at Quality Link Recruitment (QLR), the respected Scottish staffing and event management service which Brightwork acquired in 2013.

Mr Knight went on: "We have enhanced significantly Brightwork's offering to the catering and hospitality sectors. At the same time we have learned a great deal about how best to make acquisitions work successfully and, as a result, our aim continues to be a doubling of pre-tax profits by the end of 2017."