The leading staffing firm by sales in the world, Adecco, stated that it’s hurt by sluggish revenue growth for the third quarter of the year because of the slow performance of its Germany and France operations.
Europe, which happens to be one of the main drivers of revenue for the company, is currently struggling to sustain economic growth with a review conducted lately saying that euro zone business activity revealed a sluggish growth rate for October.
Adecco said that the bleak growth of its revenue has driven it to take fewer part-time staff which experts say can likely pose a threat to the company’s profitability target for 2014.
The largest market of Adecco is France which experienced a lower than expected profit growth dragging the recent third quarter results. The revenues in this country went down by 3% compared to the flat sales that it disclosed during the second quarter.
Meanwhile, profits in Germany edged up by 1% only as some of its stakeholders delayed their projects and postponed their investments.
Patrick De Maeseneire, the chief executive of Adecco, said that the management is still hoping for a fast revenue growth in 2015 but understands that it’s kind of improbable given the tumbling European GDP estimates.
De Maeseneire said that the company will rule out purchases for its staffing business until the end of next year and declared a recent 250-million euro buyback arrangement by the end of its current buyback program.