Programmed is back in the black and plans to use its Skilled labour hire business to cash in on government projects, programs and private maintenance contracts.
The staffing, maintenance and facility management services company said the acquisition of Skilled in October last year had helped it lift net profit to $3.67 million in first six months of 2016/17.
That compares to Programmed's net loss of $18.69 million in the first half of 2015/16.
Programmed's shares lifted strongly in morning trade and were up 9.3 per cent or 15 cents to $1.76 at 1046 AEDT.
Programmed managing director Chris Sutherland said revenue had soared 89 per cent to $1.3 billion due to the acquisition of Skilled.
He also expects the windfall from Skilled to grow in coming months with the first two stages of integrating the business and its workforce now complete.
"The acquisition of Skilled, only a year ago, was a very important long-term transformation opportunity for Programmed to greatly increase our scale and efficiency and provide for the opportunity to grow services across a much larger customer base," Mr Sutherland said.
"We are excited to be now moving to the third and most important phase of our plan which is to significantly grow sales over the next three years."
Under that plan Programmed will target outsourced public sector administration contracts, government health support programs such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme, defence projects such as submarine building in South Australia, industrial and mining asset maintenance, offshore oil and gas and public-private infrastructure projects.
The company will also retrain 100,000 blue collar workers displaced by automation and globalisation and try to secure new property, school, resort and sports field maintenance contracts.
Programmed is still expecting earnings of $100 million, before non-trading items, in the 2017 financial year as previously reported.
The company will pay fully franked interim dividend of 3.5 cents per share, down three cents from the first half of the 2016 financial year.
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