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Parasol Group has announced strong results over the past year, and says the firm's commitment to compliance is a key factor in its ongoing success.

The employment services provider has increased turnover by 13% to £382.9m in the financial year to April 2011, with pre-tax profits standing at just under £5m following a period of investment.

ClearSky Accounting, one of the Group's brands can now claim over 3,000 clients, making it one of the UK's Top 100 accountancy firms.

Contract Eye asked Rob Crossland, CEO of Parasol, how he viewed the latest results, and what his plans were for the future:

"Obviously I'm delighted with the company's performance in the last financial year and the outlook for the current year is also extremely positive. For me though, that is only part of the story.

Impressive numbers

"As a group of companies, we've worked with over 47,000 contractors, freelancers and SMEs, ensuring they are working compliantly in a way that suits them best, be it umbrella contracting or working via their own limited company.

"Parasol on its own recently processed its 150,000th assignment and to date, we've paid over £2.8 billion in wages to contractors, temps and freelancers and processed over 1.1 million payrolls since our inception in 2000. We've helped contractors through some significant legislation changes and we will continue to do so for many years to come.

The importance of compliance

"Our financial strength, coupled with the stringent credit control procedures we have, equate to security for contractors and freelancers. They can rely on us to pay them accurately, compliantly and on time. We have never had to rely on external parties or creative accounting practices, we have never needed to borrow from Peter to pay Paul.

"Our financial strength, reputation as a leader on compliance, and a founding member of the FCSA demonstrate our commitment to the industry and should give contractors comfort that their livelihoods are not at risk when they work via one of the Parasol group of companies."