Latest News

The latest breaking news stories for the recruitment industry are:

Ochre House has announced the appointment of Louise Davies as Director of HR Resourcing with responsibility for developing a dedicated HR Interim business. The appointment is a key part of Ochre House’s growth plans which aim to transition the business from a pure RPO provider to a full Talent Management Consultancy covering all aspects of talent acquisition, engagement, development and retention.

Food industry recruitment consultancy, Focus Management Group has formed a strategic partnership with the Food Development Association (FDA), becoming its first ever official recruitment partner.

Redwood Engineering has opened a new office in Manchester.

Next Step Recruitment proudly announces the opening of its sister office based in Godalming Surrey.

Jonathan Evans, MD of Discovery Recruitment, has donated £3000 to Jimmy’s Farm, a rare pig breeder in Essex, helping to keep one of its rarest breeds from extinction. This followed a documentary series on the farm, reporting financial difficulties as feed prices soared.

Staff from the Mandeville Recruitment Group and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation took the plunge last weekend on a charity skydive.

Between them, our intrepid daredevils have raised over £2000.

TAC Europe – on the case and on www.recruitmentliveitloveit.co.uk

Zubka (www.zubka.com) has announced the launch of its Netherlands-based referral recruitment business and local language website, based at www.zubka.com/nl. The service is being taken to market in partnership with Ambitious People, via its Recruitment Toolbox.

Manpower Inc. has announced its results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008. Compared with the same period in 2007, its revenue was $5.90 billion, up +17.3%. Net income was $107.4 million, down -33.0%.

Swedish staffing firm Poolia AB reported a 14% increase in second-quarter revenue to £31 million. The company reported strong demand in all its markets, except for the U.K. where competition increased as demand decreased.

SThree Plc., the specialist staffing business, has announced a 13.7% increase in first-half pretax profit but said that current economic uncertainty has been reflected in some areas of the UK market. The company added that while it is on course to make good progress for the year it would be affected in the event of a serious further deterioration in the underlying economic situation. SThree saw pretax profit, for the period to June 1, rise to £15 million from £13.2 million in the same period last year, with 41% of that coming from outside the UK. Gross profit in the UK was up 8% to £60 million as the slowdown in the banking sector and areas directly linked to it had a meaningful impact

FDM Group Plc. said trading performance for the first half to end-June was strong and in line with forecasts, adding it is confident of achieving market expectations for the full-year. It said it achieved continued improvement in gross profit margins year-on-year in the first six months. Within its freelance business, margins continued to improve in line with strategy, it added. During the period, FDM said continued to make client gains and won a number of contracts including BT and SciSys. It added it is entering the second half with confidence. FDM said finance director David Templeman has been appointed as company secretary after Jacs Flavell has stepped down from this position after 17 years of service.

The Recruitment & Employment Confederation has announced the departure of Deputy Chief Executive Helen Reynolds. Helen’s departure is as a result of her deciding to pursue other interests.

Mike Daulton from Daulton Construction Personnel is opening a new home working division where top consultants can continue to build their careers from the comfort of their own home office. The move comes as the company gets ready to celebrate its 20th anniversary next month.

www.recruitmentliveitloveit.co.uk welcomes Mandeville Recruitment Group to the site that works.

Randstad Holding nv has reached agreement with Kelly Services, Inc. to sell the activities of Randstad Portugal. The agreement is in line with the decision to divest the Randstad business in Portugal, which was made in the process of obtaining clearance from the European Commission for Randstad's acquisition of Vedior N.V. as announced on March 28, 2008. The other activities in Portugal which are now part of the Randstad Group as a result of the acquisition of Vedior N.V., notably the Select and Vedior activities and their associated entities, are not part of this transaction and will not be sold.

Contact Recruitment is leading the way in adopting innovative technology and has launched its first ever interactive Vidcast, to provide anyone visiting the site, with a comprehensive market insight into the financial sector.

Two gangmasters have had their licences revoked by the Gangmasters Licencing Authority - Gurkha's UK Limited - based in Sevenoaks, Kent and Renavatio Limited - based in Turriff, Aberdeenshire.

The former Chief Executive of one of the world’s largest recruitment companies is to join the board of Empresaria, the AIM-quoted staffing and recruitment group with a growing international presence. Zach Miles, 58, will join the Empresaria board as a Non-Executive Director.

Food industry recruitment consultancy Focus Management Group has teamed up with fellow food sector specialists DUPP (Den Uijl Ploeg & Partners) of the Netherlands as part of a Europe-wide recruitment network.

Graham Hale has been promoted to Associate Director at Venn Group.

Orion Group, Scotland’s leading recruitment agency, has secured a £75m contract with Talisman Energy (UK) Limited over the next five years, which will see it manage the oil and gas operator’s contractor workforce in its engineering, support service and technical sectors.

The Board of Greatfleet has announced that it has requested, and the London Stock Exchange has granted, a suspension of the Company's shares from trading on AIM with immediate effect. This suspension has been requested pending clarification of the Company's financial position on which the Board is currently taking advice. The current situation has arisen following recent difficult trading and the failure of the Company to agree repayment terms with a major creditor. As a consequence the Board is concerned that the Company may not have sufficient working capital for its current requirements.

Parc Group has announced the sale of its subsidiary, Parc Aviation Limited, to Oxford Aviation Academy (OAA) , Europe's largest independent aviation training organisation. The transaction completeted on Monday last, July 7 th.

Parc Aviation is the world's largest supplier of leased flight crew to airlines, with over 450 pilots on assignment with approximately 35 clients in over 20 countries. Parc also provides technical specialists and maintenance personnel.

Commenting on trading for the quarter ended 30 June 2008, Alistair Cox, Chief Executive of Hays plc, said: “We have had another strong quarter with 16% organic growth in Group net fees. This fourth quarter concludes an excellent year for Hays during which we have achieved strong fee and profit growth with excellent cash flow performance, whilst also making great strides in diversifying our business across geographies and sectors.

Our International business, which now represents 44% of the Group’s net fees, delivered an outstanding performance, growing organically by 35% in the quarter. Our temporary placement business continued to perform strongly across all regions, and our public sector based fees achieved double digit growth benefiting from our increased focus on this area. Unsurprisingly, we are seeing signs of the wider global economic issues starting to impact our permanent placement markets, particularly in the UK. Therefore, our priorities in the UK are firmly focused on cost control, maximising productivity and working capital management. In the International business, we continue to see good growth opportunities and we will continue to invest, where appropriate, to capitalise on these opportunities.”

Empresaria Group Plc. said it expected to generate the majority of its profits in the second half of the year due to the seasonality of its businesses and in accordance with industry trends. The group added that its first five months' trading in 2008 is in line with its view and expectations for the full year remain unchanged.

Healthcare Locums Plc. said its chief executive Kate Bleasdale bought 20,910 shares in the company at 92.2 pence each and non-executive chairman Alan Walker acquired 10,000 shares at 94.29 pence each, Following the purchases, Bleasdale owns 9.95 million shares or a 10.27% stake.

National recruitment group, HR GO plc, is delighted to announce the addition of its latest joint venture, HR GO Accountancy Recruitment Ltd to its group.

Highams Systems Services Group plc has issued the following pre-close trading update of its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2008. “As announced in its interim results the Group expected to see its major investments of the first half of the year start to make an impact in the second half, with their benefit being more clearly evident in the current financial year. Improvement has been made in the Group's performance in the second half of the financial year, with losses reducing in comparison to the previous period as planned . However, market conditions have become more challenging and we are seeing some delays in permanent hirings. The outlook for the sector remains difficult.”

June’s Report on Jobs, from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG, signalled a further weakening of UK job market conditions. Permanent placements continued to fall and temp billings rose at the weakest pace in five months as firms’ demand for staff contracted for the first time in five years. Inflation of wages and salaries accelerated despite a strong rise in candidate availability.

Jefferson Wells’ has recently appointed a new managing director – Andrew Duncan