Staffing solutions provider Corporate Services Group (CSG) has its eye on Japan, China, India, Asia-Pacific and the Americas for expansion, as the company seeks to grow its portfolio of recruitment businesses.

“We’re in development mode,” UK chief executive John Rowley told Recruiter. “We’re keen to find opportunities in those emerging markets, and we have the management experience of supervising businesses, so that’s not new to us.”

Rowley, who joined CSG in February 2005 from the Protocol Group, was previously chief operating officer and joint vice-chairman at recruitment conglomerate Vedior. He was a member of the Select Appointments executive team that stepped into the key leadership roles at Vedior after the Dutch conglomerate bought Select in 1999.

During Rowley’s watch, Vedior opened offices in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore. The Select/Vedior model of specialising in niche recruitment businesses is set to be repeated at CSG where Rowley has been focusing on revitalising and redefining individual speciality brands within the group’s existing portfolio since he took up his position.

During his time at Select, Rowley was involved in acquisitions every 13 weeks (or quarter) over a period of five years.
“We’re looking for niche businesses; we’re not interested in traditional staffing companies, ie office, light industrial. More importantly than all of that, we’re looking for a management team that wants to stay with the business, develop it and retain equity so that they have a real incentive to add to their wealth as they grow the business over time,” said Rowley.