���˿���

Kainos, the Belfast IT firm, increased its sales by 29% from £235m to £303m in the financial year ending in March 2022.

Adjusted pre-tax profit was up by 3% from £57m to £59m.

Profit growth was lower than sales growth due to increased investment and post-Covid normalisation of costs.

The company also continued to grow its workforce and now employs about 2,700 people.

Kainos specialises in helping organisations to digitise their operations and counts UK government departments among its major clients.

'Gathered further pace'

Chief executive Brendan Mooney said the digitalisation trend "gathered further pace during the pandemic" as organisations responded to the changing ways of delivering services.

Mr Mooney added that the business was becoming increasingly international: two-thirds of its customers are based in central Europe and North America, with one-third of Kainos employees based in the same regions.

In the past year international revenues grew by almost 50% from £59m to £87m.

The outlook for the coming year remains strong with the company saying its main digital services division has "more opportunities in our addressable markets than we have people to deliver them".

That means existing project and customer commitments are being prioritised followed by new engagements in the commercial and healthcare sectors.

The high global demand for IT staff is also reflected in the results.

The company said it experienced increased salary costs, the increased use of contract staff and lower staff retention.