NORTHERN Recruitment Group (NRG) said it would continue to expand in the North-East as it announced another strong set of results.

The Newcastle-based group, which also has offices in Middlesbrough, Stockton and York, reported pre-tax profits for the year ended June 30 of £3.7m.

The figure is up 19 per cent on last year, when the group announced a year of "exceptional" performance and a doubling of profits to £3.1m.

Chief executive Lorna Moran, who founded the recruitment agency in 1977, said demand for permanent staff remained buoyant.

"The North-East, where we are based and have our strongest presence, continued to produce particularly robust growth," she said.

NRG employs about 100 people across the region and also has offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

It has several divisions dealing with specialist recruitment areas, including NRG City brand, which specialises in support staff - such as receptionists, office managers and personal assistants - and NRG Professional Services, which handles senior recruitment in the private sector.

Mrs Moran said: "We achieved good results by strengthening the professional services team at our new Tees Valley office and are currently seeking a number of senior consultants to extend our capabilities in Newcastle."

She said the group will focus on expanding in its heartland area, with the opening of its Sunderland office expected in the next quarter, creating seven new jobs.

"We are not looking to move geographically - it is all about getting more growth out of what we have already got. We expect to increase our staff numbers by about 20 this year," she said.

Company chairman Leo Flinn said its NRG Public Sector brand, which recruits staff for the public and not-for-profit sectors, had also seen considerable growth.

He said: "During the year, we won important new business with the Department of Trade and Industry, Ofsted and the UK Passport Service, and continued to supply significant numbers of staff to the Inland Revenue."

The group announced it is paying shareholders a special dividend of 11.5p per share, coupled with its total full year dividend of 7.5p, compared with 2.85p last year.