Q1: profitable growth, strong cost control
Revenue of € 3,970 million; organic growth per working day + 3.6%
Perm fees up 9%
US back to growth in March
Strong conversion of gross profit into EBITA
EBITA increased by 34%, EBITA margin up from 2.4% to 3.1%
Strong free cash flow of € 74 million: leverage ratio down to 1.1
Net income up 85% from € 30 million to € 55 million
"The gradual recovery set in motion in 2013 has continued into Q1, with North America returning to growth at the end of the quarter and a continuing, albeit slow, growth trend across most of our European markets", says Jacques van den Broek, CEO of Randstad. "We are confident that this gradual recovery will continue. Due to market circumstances in the past few years, the focus of our people has been on strong cost control, and they have done a great job. It is now time to turn our attention to generating profitable organic growth through activity-based field steering. Diligent execution in Spain, US Staffing and Japan, and the first signs of improvement in many other countries, illustrate this is the way to go. Excellent execution and delivering top quality service to our clients every day, every week, and every month is our ticket to market out-performance and future profitable growth."
Please refer to the PDF file for the full press release.