The Adecco Group reported first-quarter revenue rose 7% on an organic basis. The world’s largest staffing provider also announced it would further expand its digital strategy with the launch of Adia, an end-to-end online staffing model.

The Adia platform enables employers to request temporary staff for hourly or daily assignments; it targets hospitality and events candidate profiles for the SME segment. Adia’s algorithm matches jobs to workers based on skills, level of experience, proximity to the place of work as well as the job seeker’s real-time availability. Adia has been developed in close collaboration with Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global IT services and outsourcing provider. After a pilot phase, Adia launched in five cities across Switzerland, with a multi-country roll-out planned for the coming quarters.

Looking back at the first-quarter results, revenue growth was driven by an increase in Adecco’s Italy business and by a continuation of the market improvement in France that started in the second half of 2016.

Adecco reported the momentum continues in the second quarter, with revenue growth for March and April of 5% to 6%, organically and adjusted for trading days.

Adecco previously announced management changes — including Bob Crouch, regional head of North America, who is leaving the company. The Switzerland-based company aligned financial reporting with the new management structure starting with the first-quarter results.

Business process outsourcing revenue, which includes managed service provider revenue, recruitment process outsourcing and vendor management system revenue, fell 18% on a constant currency basis to €45 million (US$48 million). Adecco announced in December it sold a majority stake in its Beeline VMS operations to a private equity firm that also holds a majority stake in VMS provider IQNavigator.

By business line, general staffing revenue rose 8% on an organic basis and professional staffing revenue rose 4%. Permanent placement revenue rose 6% organically and career transition rose 3% year over year.

Quote

“In Q1 2017, The Adecco Group maintained its positive momentum, thanks to our more than 33,000 colleagues and over 700,000 associates around the world,” said CEO Alain Dehaze. “In Q1 2017, every one of our regional business segments delivered positive revenue growth, organically and trading days adjusted. Reflecting our focus on driving productivity, our 6% underlying revenue growth was delivered with an increase of only 1% in FTE employees. And importantly, we converted our strong profit growth into excellent cash flow.”

Adecco expects continued modest growth in US market, Dehaze told CNBC.

Revenue by segment

Revenue by business line

All of the following revenue changes are reported on an organic basis:

France

• Revenue rose 8%.
• General staffing revenue, which accounts for more than 90% of revenue, rose 9% while professional staffing revenue edged up 1%.
• Revenue growth continued to be strong in construction and logistics and very strong in automotive
• Permanent placement revenue rose 10%.

North America, UK & Ireland general staffing

• Revenue rose 4%, or 3% adjusted for trading days.
• North America general staffing, which accounts for approximately 75% of revenue, was flat as growth at large customers was offset by a softer development among smaller clients.
• UK & Ireland general staffing, which represents approximately 25% of revenues, rose 16%, with strong growth in retail and in local government.
• Permanent placement revenue rose 6% in North America general staffing and fell 8% in UK & Ireland general staffing.

Germany, Austria, Switzerland

• Revenue rose 5%, or 1% adjusted for trading days.
• In Germany and Austria, revenue rose 4% but remained flat when adjusted for trading days.
• In Switzerland, revenue rose 9% or by 8% when adjusted for trading days.

Benelux and Nordics

• Revenue rose 8%, up 4% when adjusted for trading days.
• In the Nordics, revenue rose 12% or up 6% adjusted for trading days, led by strong growth in Sweden and Norway.
• Benelux revenue rose 6%, up 2% trading-days adjusted.
• Belgium continued to deliver broad-based growth.
• Netherlands revenue growth improved thanks to a strong sequential development.

Japan

• Revenue rose 3%, with good growth in professional staffing.

Rest of World

• Revenue rose 8% or by 5%, trading-days adjusted.
• Revenue rose 4% in Australia and New Zealand; 9% in Latin America; 8% in Eastern Europe & MENA; 8% in Asia; and 9% in India.

Lee Hecht Harrison

• Revenue rose 8% in constant currency following the acquisition of Penna. Organically revenue edged up 1%, with growth in the USA and the UK partially offset by declines in France and Canada.

Share price and market cap

Shares in Adecco rose 2.20% to 76.65 in Swiss francs at close of trading. The company has a market cap of 13.19 billion Swiss francs, according to Google Finance.