Impellam Group, parent company of staffing firms including Blue Arrow, Carbon 60 and Career Teachers, is to acquire US-headquartered global staffing group Bartech for an initial US$120m (£80m).

Impellam group finance director Darren Mee told Recruiter this deal, one of the group’s largest, was “strategically probably the most difficult because it’s on the other side of the world”.

However, the business was very complementary.

Guidant, Impellam’s existing managed services provider (MSP) in the US, was a good fit with Bartech as they operate in different market segments, Mee explains. 

He added the two companies’ specialist staffing divisions were also complementary as Bartech focuses on white collar roles, while Impellam focuses on blue collar. 

But over and above that, Bartech was a good cultural fit, he said. “Strategically we’ve looked at quite a few things in North America but this one fitted particularly well because culturally it is so close to Impellam.”

Dependent on performance, a further $6m cash will be paid by April 2018. Of the initial $120m, $4.6m will be paid in Impellam shares.

Bartech’s chief executive David Barfield joins the Impellam Group as CEO of its North American businesses. Mike Bixler, Impellam’s North America managing director for specialist staffing, becomes MD of the enlarged specialist staffing business and reports into David Barfield. 

According to an Impellam statement, the Michigan-headquartered Bartech manages more than 30,000 workers and consultants globally through its MSP and specialist staffing businesses. Mee says it employs about 300 people directly. 

He says the next steps will be considering how best to grow the combined business in North America and looking at opportunities outside of Europe.

“Customers are increasingly looking for us to go into places outside of the UK and North America and we now have the combined expertise to do that.”

In announcing the acquisition this morning, Impellam also released a trading update, which says though it is trading in line with expectations, it has taken a hit from uncertainty in the healthcare staffing market. 

It says this is due to recent government announcements regarding pay caps for locums and agency staff working for the NHS, adding it “may have a short-term financial impact on our healthcare businesses”.

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