Acorn posts 36% growth in record year

Acorn posts 36% growth in record year

Leading UK multi-regional recruitment and training company Acorn Group has reported a 36% increase in turnover to £93.5m – and is on course to this year to top the £100m mark for the first time in its history.

The Acorn Group earnings – up by £24.8m from £68.7m in 2009 – also played a significant role in boosting parent company Synergie’s revenue for 2010 to record levels, returning sales for the year of €1,23 billion – an increase of 29.8%.

In one week alone last October, Acorn racked up another record, earning more than £2m in placing 5,000-plus workers in temporary employment across the UK. It was the company’s best-ever single week in its 18-year history, in which it provided temporary staff to more than 650 different companies.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, global recruiter Synergie witnessed a substantial 31.6% surge in revenue across its operations in Europe and Canada compared to the same three months of the previous year, and announced highly encouraging prospects for 2011.

The Group reported revenue of €340.2 million for October, November and December of last year, compared with €258.6 million for the same period last year – an increase of 31.6%. The European share of those final quarter figures – which includes The Acorn Group earnings – accounted for €130.8 million, a rise of 50.6%.

Europe contributed an even greater share of the 12-month revenue total, with 2010 earnings of €468.5 million – a year-on-year increase of 55.4%, and with current cash resources of more than €50 million, the Synergie Group remains on the look out for takeover opportunities across Europe.

Matt Southall, Group Managing Director of Acorn, which has its headquarters at the Celtic Springs Business Park in Newport, said: “We are delighted that here in the UK the Acorn Group, including our subsidiaries Concept in the South West of England and Exxell in the South East, are continuing to make a significant and growing contribution to the ongoing achievements of Synergie.

“It’s been a record-breaking year for all of us at Acorn, which is the result of the tremendous hard work, commitment and care we give to all our customers and partners.

“And while we look to build on this success and develop our ambitions for 2011 still further, we’ll need to remain as agile, energetic and resourceful as we can to ensure we can support our clients to operate as flexibly and competitively as possible.”

Daniel Augereau, Chairman and Managing Director of Synergie, said: “Our strategy of conserving our forces during the crisis has fully paid off in 2010. The sharp increase in our sales is much higher than that of our markets which, after two difficult years, are moving back towards growth.

“We are particularly confident about continuing this dynamic in 2011, and we have fixed as the objective a growth of more than 15% in our sales, despite a high comparison effect given the excellent sales figures for 2010.”

Synergie, listed on Eurolist Compartment B of NYSE Euronext Paris, is a leading independent provider of global human resources management services with a network of 550 agencies in Europe and Canada. Synergie is included in the CAC Small 90, CAC Mid and Small 180 and SBF 250 indices.