Empresaria keeps eye on East as Kreulen steps up
Joost Kreulen
Joost Kreulen
Multi-sector international staffing firm Empresaria has its eye on Hong Kong as the next stop in the Asian market, according to Joost Kreulen, the company’s chief operations officer and soon-to-be chief executive.
The company is also “in research mode” about launching a presence in Vietnam, with possible expansion in Malaysia, Kreulen told Recruiter. At the same time, Empresaria will see 2012 through as “a period of concentration on growing and improving the returns on existing operations” as financial turmoil in Europe creates challenges for recruiters, Kreulen said.
The 8 September announcement of Empresaria’s financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2011 revealed that its holdings in Germany, a key market for the company, had experienced significant financial fallout from the adoption there of new collective labour agreements. Also revealed was the choice of Kreulen to succeed current CEO Miles Hunt when he steps down at the end of the year (see box). Kreulen joined Empresaria in 2008.
Empresaria’s Singapore hub, launched earlier this year, houses three of the company’s brands: banking & finance recruiter LMA, rec-to-rec recruiter McCall and Asia-based executive search firm Monroe Consulting Group. The parent company’s vision is to use the hub as a nest, from which each brand launches and builds its Asia presence, then “once they have their feet on the ground, and are confident they have a reason for existence there”, each leaves to set up as its own legal entity in the region and to continue development.
“We’re planning for LMA to leave the hub next year and establish their own legal entity,” Kreulen said. “We will look to … potentially open another one of these hub offices based on this concept in other parts of South-East Asia. The place we’re looking at is Hong Kong.”
Miles Hunt
Hunt’s departure leaves lasting legacy
Even in an industry where entrepreneurism is king, Miles Hunt is a standout. “Miles has played a big part by being one of the entrepreneurs who expanded from the UK into staffing emerging international markets over the last decade,” said Kean Marden, head of support services equity research, Royal Bank of Scotland.
“Two things stick in my mind: the first was the strategy developed by Miles and [chairman] Tony [Martin] in the mid-2000s to take a very UK-focused business and diversify internationally to a far greater degree. Small companies, in stock market terms, can often be very domestically focused; Empresaria was one of the few that I met in the mid-2000s that were more outward looking and international in their perspective.” Time has proved this was the right strategy, Marden said.
The other defining moment of Hunt’s tenure for Marden was the company’s acquisition of German recruiter Headway, a deft geographic decision that offers considerable potential over the long term. “If you take a step back and look about placing bets and acquiring assets in markets which are going to grow rapidly, and make a big difference to the overall group, Headway stands out. That may not be apparent now but I think it will be in five years’ time.”
Joost Kreulen, Hunt’s anointed successor, said that he and Hunt shared the same vision. “It’s an honour to take over his legacy,” said Kreulen. “It’s not a simple thing to build up from scratch an international staffing company. It takes a lot of guts and entrepreneurial spirit.”
