Volt Information Sciences Inc. (NYSE MKT: VISI) reported net revenue fell 19.1% in its fiscal first quarter ended Jan. 28. On a same-store and constant currency basis, net revenue fell 10.6% year over year, excluding net revenue contributed from businesses sold or exited during the past year.

The company said a significant portion of the year-over-year decline was related to lower revenue from a single large customer in its North American staffing segment. 

The New York-based IT and engineering staffing and MSP provider reported net income widened to $10.7 million from $4.6 million in the prior year. The quarter included $518,000 of restructuring and severance costs; the year-ago quarter included $307,000 of restructuring and severance costs, and $1.4 million in settlement and impairment charges, offset by a $48.0 million gain on a divestiture.

In a conference call with investors, Volt said it hired former Randstad exec Linda Perneau as president of Volt Workforce Solutions, effective May 26. Currently and until Perneau is permitted to assume her new role in May, she is serving as an executive advisor to Volt’s international staffing business.

Perneau since 2011 has held a number of senior-level positions in the general staffing division at Randstad US, most recently as its co-president overseeing all commercial staffing. She previously held senior roles of increasing responsibility in that division, including COO, division president and executive VP. Perneau’s prior staffing industry experience also includes executive VP at Spherion, senior VP of the southeast division at Adecco and area manager-West region for Kelly Services.

Quote

“Overall, Volt’s first quarter results were mixed,” President and CEO Michael Dean said. “We continue to benefit from our ongoing focus on achieving operational efficiencies and managing expenses, which has enabled the company to consistently deliver lower selling, administrative and other operating costs. However, our ability to generate top line growth continues to be impacted by lower revenues in our North American Staffing segment, driven in part by a single large customer that has significantly reduced their reliance on temporary staffing. Excluding this customer from the current and prior periods, revenue declines over the past several quarters have been smaller and relatively steady. And as previously outlined, our entire team is actively implementing detailed initiatives to turn the top line.”

Segment revenue

North America staffing services revenue fell 11.1% from the year-ago quarter, driven by lower demand from customers in both professional and commercial job families, as well as the significant change in the large customer’s contingent labor strategy in the latter part of fiscal 2017.

International staffing services revenue — which includes the company’s contingent staffing, direct placement and managed programs business in Europe and Asia — edged down 2.5%. Volt said the decline was primarily a result of softening economic demand in the United Kingdom, offset by strong growth in Belgium and Singapore.

“Corporate and other revenue,” which primarily consists of the company’s North American managed service business, fell 64.0%, primarily driven by the impact from the sale of Maintech and the quality assurance business, which occurred early in the second quarter of fiscal 2017 and at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2017, respectively. On a same-store basis, excluding businesses sold or exited, the decline was 6.3% year-over-year as a result of winding down of certain programs in the company’s managed service business as well as normal fluctuations in call center activity.