During the 1970’s, the Vroom & Dreesmann Group began to diversify its retail and cleaning network to include employment agency businesses. Willem Vroom and Anton Dreesmann had opened the first Vroom & Dreesmann retail store in Amsterdam in 1887 selling bundles of soap and candles, swatches of clothing material, and brooms.
Vroom & Dreesmann’s temporary staffing business continued to develop during the 1970’s through both acquisitions and organic growth but it took almost two decades before this increasingly important business line became wholly rebranded as Vedior. The brand name (which had been originally established in 1969) was formed from the first two letters of words within the phrase ‘verenigde dienstverlenende organisaties’, which is Dutch for ‘united services organisation’. At about the same time, Vedior began to take its first steps towards establishing an international network through offices in Belgium and Germany.
A number of brands that are part of Vedior today also have very well-established roots. In 1949, ASB became the first temporary staffing company (as we understand the term today) to be founded in the Netherlands. The company was created to meet the needs of postwar reconstruction, including the provision of workers to the agricultural sector. Bis S.A. (now branded as Vediorbis) was founded in 1954 by an entrepreneur who, having fought for the French Resistance during the Second World War, returned from the USA to create the first French employment agency. Elsewhere, Coopers Recruitment was founded in 1964, Reliance Care in 1967, Qualitair in 1969, Dactylo in 1970 and Abraxas in 1974.
In 1985, with Vroom & Dreesmann still in the hands of the founding families, the Company, by that time an international conglomerate, was rebranded as Vendex International.
At the end of 1996, Vendex took the important step of acquiring Bis S.A. The addition of Bis doubled Vedior’s staffing services business, making it one of the world’s largest and also shifted the largest portion of Vedior’s revenues to the French market. With the Bis acquisition completed, Vendex announced its intention to spin off its business services operations into the newly formed Vedior N.V., which, in 1997, took its own listing on the Amsterdam stock exchange. At that time, Vendex sold only 20% of its holding, then legislation was passed that enabled Dutch corporations to spin off their operations. Vendex spun off the rest of its Vedior shareholding in 1998 through a distribution of Vedior shares to Vendex shareholders. At this time, Vedior comprised staffing services as well as a large European cleaning business known as Abilis and other miscellaneous business services such as provided by the trademark specialist, Markgraaf.
During 1997, Vedior continued to expand into emerging European markets such as Italy and, in 1998, added Laborman to its portfolio, a company with a national staffing network throughout Spain.
In 1999, Abilis was sold to a Danish company in order to allow Vedior to become a pure play staffing services provider (to be followed by the sale of Markgraaf in 2000). The Abilis disposal gave Vedior the appetite to look around for further staffing acquisitions and, by September 1999, had settled on the acquisition of UK-based Select Appointments. With operations in 25 international markets, including the UK, USA, Australia, South Africa and the Far East, this transformational deal established Vedior as the third largest staffing company in the world. Select had been founded in 1980 by a British entrepreneur and held a strong presence in the specialist staffing market targeting niche disciplines such as IT, accounting/finance, healthcare, and education sectors, thereby providing Vedior with a strong global presence in the fast-growing professional/executive sector of the staffing industry. The diversity of Select’s business also helped to some extent reduce Vedior’s dependence on the French market.
Shortly after the acquisition of Select, in order to capitalise further on growth within the professional/executive staffing sector, Vedior brought together those specialist businesses it already owned prior to the acquisition of Select into a new brand, Expectra, providing primarily IT, accounting and engineering/technical staffing services.
In August 2000, the Chairman of the Board of Management tendered his resignation and the Chairman of newly acquired Select was invited to assume responsibility for the wider Group.
A strategic review established a new set of priorities; to reduce the overall level of debt, to improve the operational performance of the Vedior brands in continental Europe, and to establish a coherent long-term strategy. From 2001 onwards, the results of the strategic review began to deliver improved financial discipline, increased accountability, and more decentralised and entrepreneurial management structures. In 2001, Vedior successfully completed an equity offering raising F702 million and thereby easing its level of debt.
Between 2001 and 2007, Vedior completed a series of 50 acquisitions, developing its network into a number of new countries and also expanding its range of services. At the same time, improved economic conditions enabled the Group to emerge as a stronger, more viable entity. Organic growth also continued to be a focus with the overall result that, within a period of six years, the Group’s international network expanded from 28 countries to 50.
In 2004, Zach Miles, Vice Chairman of Vedior’s Board of Management and also part of the original Select management team, was appointed CEO and continued to execute and refine the strategic plan established in 2001. In successive years, Vedior continued to improve profitability and efficiency, despite rather slow trading conditions in France, still the largest market for the Group. In 2005, Vedior joined the AEX in Amsterdam, an index of the 25 most actively traded securities in the Netherlands.
Zach Miles retired in September 2007, to be replaced by Tex Gunning, previously Group Vice President South East Asia and Australasia for Unilever. Accordingly, Vedior embarked on a new strategic review. During the review, it was announced that Vedior had reached agreement with Dutch staffing company, Randstad, to combine and create the second largest staffing services company worldwide.
During Vedior’s 10 year journey as an independent publicly listed entity, sales, operating income and headcount have each increased by more than 200%, a compound annual growth rate of more than 12%. This is an achievement that all Vedior’s employees – past and present – can be justly proud of.
Now, Vedior’s talented and experienced people will embark on a new challenge in helping to shape the world of work. The end is merely a way to make a beginning...