Randstad aims to be among Japan's top 10 staffing firms within 3 yrs

Randstad Holding NV, the world's third-largest staffing firm by revenues, will try to become one of the top 10 players in the industry in Japan within the next three years by acquiring a Japanese rival, company executives said Monday.

Marcel Wiggers, who heads newly-launched Randstad's Japanese unit, said the Dutch company aims for 50 billion yen in annual revenues by the end of 2009.

"An acquisition is part of our future strategy," Wiggers said at a news conference in Tokyo to announce the launch of Randstad's full operations in Japan. "We expect market consolidation to take place." Citing a lack of dominant players in the Japanese market, the managing director of Randstad Japan K.K. said realignment among second-tier staffing firms is very likely in the near future.

He said big Japanese staffing companies such as Staff Service Holdings Co. and Tempstaff Co. are growing faster, but their smaller rivals are finding it difficult to take advantage of market opportunities at a time when the industry is enjoying double-digit growth on an economic recovery.

Wiggers and Robert-Jan van de Kraats, chief financial officer of Randstad Holding, who also attended the conference, declined to comment on whether it has already entered acquisition talks with a Japanese staffing firm or has any such specific plan.

But Kraats said, "It is very important to realize that our business is about people that place people, and that means if we make an acquisition it has to be a friendly acquisition." "It has to be a team of people that relate well with our company. That's essential," he said.

Compared with some industrialized countries, the company said the Japanese staffing market, the third biggest in the world, is "fragmented," noting that even industry leader Staff Service only has a 13 percent share, followed by Tempstaff with 8 percent, Pasona Inc. with 7 percent and many others with less than 1 percent.

In an attempt to penetrate into the market quickly, Randstad said it will first focus on the financial sector in Tokyo.

The executives said demand for a skilled workforce for the sector is rapidly growing in Japan, especially among foreign companies.

The company is to mainly target job seekers who have more than three years of experience in financial services such as accounting and bookkeeping, they said.

After opening several more offices in Tokyo next year, the company plans to launch operational bases in other parts of Japan such as Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe, and will expand its staffing services for the computer-related sector, they said.

Randstad, founded in 1960 by two economics students, set up the Japanese office in Tokyo in September.

The company has about 2,600 offices in 20 countries, including Germany, the United States, Britain, China and India.