FINANCIALS: Diversification costs Kelly Services dear

Global workforce solutions provider Kelly Services’ investment in diversification caused net earnings to fall 68% year on year to $4.0m (£2.4m) in the second quarter, according to its unaudited results, which were published on 6 August.
Tue, 12 Aug 2014Global workforce solutions provider Kelly Services’ investment in diversification caused net earnings to fall 68% year on year to $4.0m (£2.4m) in the second quarter, according to its unaudited results, which were published on 6 August.

A spokesperson for the company told Recruiter.co.uk: “We’re trying to move up the value chain. We aren’t going to stay here and wait for the economy to return – we are going to invest. In Q4 [2013], we talked about investments and the quarter played out as we anticipated.”

The spokesperson added that the company was planning to expand into specialist and professional areas such as technology, science, engineering, IT and finance, to diversify away from “anaemic” growth in the industrial sector.

Revenue from the staffing group’s UK operation increased 10% year on year to $28.4m (£16.9m) in the second quarter of 2014; however, in constant currency, which removes the impact of the strong pound, growth was 0.5%. Germany, Norway and Switzerland all recorded falling revenue.

Carl Camden, president and chief executive officer of Kelly Services, said: “Our second quarter results aligned with our expectations and we’re pleased with how we’ve executed our strategy in the first half of 2014.

“Our investments in OCG [Outsourcing and Consulting Group] continue to yield double-digit revenue, GP [gross profit] and earnings growth, confirming this segment is meeting the market’s increased demand for higher-margin talent supply chain solutions.”

Several other large international staffing firms have released positive results in the last week, including Randstad and Adecco.

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