International recruiter Adecco reported a drop in revenue and earnings for 2009. However, the company pointed to signs of improvement in the final quarter of the year.

Adecco’s worldwide revenue was down a quarter (26%) at €14.8bn (£13.37m) and EBITA margin (earnings before interest tax and amortisation) fell from 4.5% to 2.7%, a 40% difference.

Gross margin also fell by 0.2 percentage points to 17.8%.

However, the company pointed to signs of improvement as the year ended, with revenues falling by 18% in Q4 and EBITA down 33% compared with Q4 in 2008.

Commenting on the results, Patrick De Maeseneire, chief executive of the Adecco Group, says: “The past year has been exceptionally tough, but I am pleased to say that we have managed the downturn very proactively. We made the necessary cost reductions and structurally changed our branch network and delivery models.

“In the fourth quarter, trading conditions continued to improve in our major markets France and North America, but also in most other geographies we saw positive momentum. This positive trend continued into the first two months of the year, with France and North America returning to year-on-year growth in recent weeks.”

Chris Burger, an Adecco analyst at Keppler Capital Markets in Switzerland told Recruiter: “We are seeing signs of improvement all over the world.”

“And he pointed in particular to the 0.2% fall in the gross margin, which he said had “fallen less than feared.”

Burger said results in the UK were “quite depressed” because of the costs of integrating Spring, which was acquired. “If you exclude these acquisition costs and the impact of currency values in UK and Ireland revenues fell by 21% in pounds.”