Recruiting firms still beefing up
Swiss-based staffing giant Adecco, the world's #1 employment service company, keeps buying up smaller rivals. Just recently, the firm announced the acquisition of German temporary staffing agency Tuja Group in an $802 million buy. Tuja mainly deals with skilled laborers, including engineers and technicians. Adecco executives see Germany as a big growth area as relaxation of the employment laws will soon make temporary hiring a more available option in that country.
The German staffing market is still a pretty loose oligopoly. This move will allow Adecco to move into a tie in the German market with Dutch rival Randstad NV, with a 13% share. Other key players in Germany are US-based Manpower and German Persona AG.
We last looked at Adecco in January 2006, tracing its extensive acquistions up until then. In early 2006, the company bought German staffing company Deutscher Industrie Service (DIS). It now has 6,700 offices worldwide.
But meanwhile, the other recruiting/staffing giants have not been idle.
#2 Manpower has been busy too. In 2004 it bought the world's largest career transition company, US-based Right Management Consultants. In 2005, it acquired three divisions of India's ABC Consultants. In 2007, it bought India's Grow Talent. It opened new operations in China and now has over 4,000 offices worldwide and offices in 70 countries.
#3 Vedior NV, based in the Netherlands, has bought a host of staffing and recruiting firms in the last few years, ending up with over 2,200 branch offices in six continents. These include 2007 buys of UK-based elect Appointments PLC and Major Players Ltd. In 2006 it bought Dutch Voxius BV; Norway's Corridor AS; the UK's Albemarle Interim Management, Special Agent Ltd , The Blomfield Group, and MOT Models Ltd,; Argentina's Rest Personal Eventual S.A., Canada's CNC Global Ltd; and Swiss Talisman Software Holding SA. In 2005, there were the US's Delta Pharma, Inc., Japan's Staff Service Group, and Finland's Capsil Oy, among others.
#4 Randstad in 2007 acquired Swiss temp agency Job One for an undisclosed sum. In 2006, it acquired Chinese employment agency Talent Shanghai, German agency Bindan & Teccon, India's Team4U, and Dutch payroll and staffing company PinkRoccade HR Services. In 2005, Randstad bought Belgian agency Galilei the UK's Martin Ward Anderson, Dutch agency Dienstverlening. In 2004, it bought Sweden's Arvako and France's Take Air Staffing, and Polish firms Intersource and Job Net. It now has 2,300 branch offices in 20 countries.
These companies are expanding because ether biggest clients, often Fortune 500 countries, are expanding. It's not enough to maintain offices in Tokyo, London, and New York; global service companies need office in Shanghai, Mumbai, and Rio. And that cuts out the local players, who are forced to sell out. As ever, only the big can serve the big.
11:09:33 PM 
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