Results for the quarter, released this morning, reveals overall group revenue declined to €5.96bn (£5.01bn) from €6.1bn in the same quarter last year, while gross profit was down 2% to €1.15bn from €1.16bn.

Revenue growth was strongest in the group’s Japan operation (up 8% year-on-year), while the biggest decline in revenue was recorded in the Germany, Austria, Switzerland (DACH) region (down 11% on the previous year). In the UK & Ireland, the group saw a 3% and 7% decline in its general staffing and professional staffing divisions respectively.

For the full year, revenue was down 2% from €23.8bn to €23.4bn.

Group CEO Alain Dehaze said: “The group concluded 2019 with strong performance against a backdrop of ongoing economic uncertainty and market slowdown. Despite the challenging conditions that impacted revenues, we did not compromise long-term investments and remained focused on delivering our ‘Perform, Transform, Innovate’ strategy to position the business for profitable growth. The results of our GrowTogether programme, pricing actions and strengthened business mix drove a structural improvement in profitability, with Q4 gross margin up 20 bps [basis points] year-on-year, the sixth consecutive quarterly increase.

“In 2019, GrowTogether was further embedded into the organisation, over-achieving against its productivity commitment and supporting a 10 bps improvement in EBITA margin. This profitability improvement was delivered while we continued to invest in new technology, building our digital product portfolio, and strengthening the ventures in line with our innovation strategy.

“2020 will mark the final year of our current strategic cycle and focus remains on delivering further margin improvement and profitable growth. Through GrowTogether we are deploying and scaling proven digital tools, including our integrated front-office solution and global candidate app, to differentiate our business and make our operations more efficient. We are also fully embedding lean processes (PERFORM) into how we work. We remain committed to achieving the €250m GrowTogether productivity target for 2020, and to leveraging our 360 HR solutions ecosystem to support the success of our clients and candidates, and to deliver profitable growth.”

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