Global groups snap up NZ recruitment firms

By ADAM GIFFORD

The trend to globalisation in the recruitment industry has continued with international operators swooping on two local firms.

IT training and recruitment firm Interim Technology has bought IT recruitment specialist Wilson White, which has offices in Auckland and Wellington.

International staffing firm Select has bought Wellington-based Clayton Ford, which specialises in finding finance, accounting and banking staff.

In recent years, Doughty Group merged with Australian company Candle, Compuforce disappeared into Morgan and Banks Technology and multinationals such as Manpower and Korn/Ferry International also have a local presence.

With Clayton Ford's managing director and owner, Greg O'Brien, out of the picture, former Lampen Group general manager Dave Stewart has been brought in to run the company, which will continue to trade under its old name.

Mr Stewart said Select, part of the Vedior Group, had made 50 such acquisitions around the world since 1994.

"The Select model is to buy successful companies in niche markets and maintain the same branding and niche-market success."

He added that globalisation was a trend affecting most industries.

"Because they service marketplaces, recruitment companies are often a temperature gauge of what happens in the market as whole, so trends emerge earlier."

He said clients wanted increasingly more sophisticated resources and the ability to source staff from different markets, continents and backgrounds to meet their needs.

"That takes international contacts, which are expensive to set up and maintain. This gives us stronger financial backing and access to global resources, candidates and alliances."

He said Select's investment would help Clayton Ford expand in Auckland.

Wilson White co-founder Doug White said the company's directors had turned down several offers because they did not want to work with the proposed buyers.

"These guys [Interim Technology] we are very happy with," Mr White said.

Wilson White management has two-year contracts with the new entity, Interim Technology Recruitment NZ.

Interim Group is a $US4 billion ($8.78 billion) firm headquartered in Florida.

It is one of the largest IT recruiters in Australasia. It also has an education arm, Interim Technology Training Institutes, in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and an IT solutions and services business which has 200 consultants across the Tasman.

Wilson White has 11 staff in Auckland and eight in Wellington, and last year had revenues of $5.3 million.

"Interim will open quite a few doors for us in this country," Mr White said. "It has preferred supplier agreements with a number of multinational companies, who have asked Interim to provide a mechanism so they can use their services here in New Zealand."