Staffing major Adecco replaces CEO with former executive

Staffing company Adecco SA said Thursday it will bring in Patrick De Maeseneire, the head of Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut, to replace current CEO Dieter Scheif. The appointment is effective 1 June 2009.

Adecco Chairman Rolf Doerig said De Maeseneire's appointment was part of Adecco's strategic plan to broaden the global reach of its high-margin professional staffing business, which places highly qualified workers such as lawyers, economists and medical employees.

"De Maeseneire has a proven successful international track record," Doerig said, adding that, "in combination with his strong leadership skills and international sales background, de Maeseneire will lead Adecco to the next stage of development and success."

De Maeseneire, a Belgian who worked at Adecco from 1998 to 2002, has held leading positions within the Adecco Group. He was employed as the country manager for the Benelux and later led the professional staffing business of the group globally out of New York. He led this business from 2000 to 2002 before he joined Barry Callebaut as CEO. Under his reign, Adecco started to move into this business field more actively.

Professional staffing generates substantially higher profit margins than the regular placement of blue-collar workers, where profitability is on the decline as firms hire fewer staff. To counter this trend, Adecco has pushed its professional staffing division in the past but now aims to further accelerate growth and profitability in this area. "We want to grow this business organically and via acquisitions," Chairman Doerig said.

Adecco, like rivals such as US-based Manpower Inc. and Randstad NV of the Netherlands, is struggling with sharply deteriorating employment markets. The company recently has said it hoped to counter declining sales and profits with job cuts and cost cuts. But acquisitions should also help it buck the rapidly deteriorating trend.

Adecco posted a fourth-quarter net loss and saw sales fall about 25 per cent in January and February. Adecco took a €22 million loss in the final quarter of last year and its profits for 2008 fell 33 per cent to €495 million. Its revenues for the entire year fell by 5 per cent to €20 billion.

Adecco and Barry Callebaut share a common major shareholder - the Jacobs Foundation, set up by the late chocolate and coffee magnate Klaus J Jacobs.