Adecco confident in King to sort out UK

20-Aug-2008

Adecco Group bosses said last week that they believe new country manager Catherine King will "take the [company's UK and Ireland] business to the next level" in the wake of an embarrassing 25% drop in revenue (in euros) for the second quarter of 2008, compared to the second quarter of 2007.

At a 12 August press conference to discuss the global company's second quarter 2008 results, group chief executive Dieter Scheiff acknowledged that Adecco's UK and Ireland business "is not yet where we want it to be". When asked what had gone wrong, Scheiff responded to Recruiter that there had been "some difficulties in the UK". He acknowledged that "revenue development continues to be weak" but asked that King should be given "some time" to turn the business round.

In his prepared remarks, Scheiff acknowledged the importance of the UK and the US in providing "nearly 50%" of revenue for its professional service business, but admitted that part of the company's UK business "continues to be affected by restructuring".

Asked to elaborate by Recruiter, Adecco responded, stating: "Specifically this means we have to consolidate and optimise our branch network; we have to continuously work on culture change towards our economic value added approach in the market; and we have to adjust our delivery models."

Asked if King, who stepped into the UK and Ireland top job on 1 August, was a permanent or an interim appointment, Scheiff told Recruiter: "I hope she will be doing this for a long time."

Scheiff admitted that the difficult economic environment was having an impact on performance. He said the group's goal of achieving a 5% EBIT margin (earnings before interest and taxes) by 2009 was becoming "increasingly ambitious".

Scheiff's only reference to former UK and Ireland chief executive officer René Schuster in the press briefing was to reiterate that he had left "to pursue other interests". Adecco announced Schuster's departure in July.

Schuster, who had no previous recruitment industry experience before taking on the UK and Ireland job in 2006, was said to be vacationing abroad last week and could not be reached for comment.