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ManpowerGroup Goes Inland in China

June 10, 2011

ManpowerGroup Inc. (NYSE: MAN) acquired China-based staffing firm Xi’an Fesco as the world’s third-largest staffing firm expands into inland areas of China. ManpowerGroup also announced a partnership with the city of Kaifeng, China.

Xi’an Fesco has more than 10,000 associates and serves the Shaanxi Province.

ManpowerGroup Chairman, CEO and President Jeffrey Joerres told Staffing Industry Analysts his company has been in China for 17 years and will use the acquisition as a platform to move further west into China.

“We’re the first one to move that far west, and there are still tier one cities that far west,” Joerres said. Tier one cities include large cities with 10 million to 15 million in population. “There are a lot of incentives for companies to move west and a lot of opportunities.”

Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, is approximately 850 miles northwest of Shanghai.

While China’s coastal cities are well known, the frontier of manufacturing is further west, according to ManpowerGroup. The company’s move west came at the request of government and clients.

Terms of the Xi’an Fesco acquisition were not announced. However, the company provides a wide gamut of staffing services workers from quality assurance managers and skilled trades to white collar and professional workers.

ManpowerGroup also reported it struck a partnership with the city of Kaifeng in Henan Province, China, that will provide it access to millions of workers in the north central area of the country. The company said the move secures its position as China’s only provider of a full suite of workforce services – ranging from executive search and recruitment process outsourcing to large volume recruitment and temporary staffing. Kaifeng is located approximately 560 miles northwest of Shanghai.

ManpowerGroup also announced earlier this week a strategy for expanding into inland China and was awarded a partnership with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to help develop a talent exchange center.

The company’s strategy in China is designed to enable to workforce component of China’s five-year-plan for strengthening its manufacturing sector.