Randstad N.V. (AMS:RAND)
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Apr 30, 2026, 5:35 PM CET
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Earnings Call: Q3 2021
Oct 21, 2021
Hello, and welcome to the Randstad Third Quarter Results 2021. My name Please note that this conference is being recorded and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. Is however, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register
your question.
I'll now hand you over to your host, Jacques van den Broek to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you, Josh. Good to talk to you all. Here with Henry and Bisra Akshay from Investor Relations.
Is And yes, we sent you 2 press releases this morning, the regular one that you recognized and the other one on me stepping down is As of end of March next year. Lots of questions, of course, why now? And Well, as the CEO, I think you've got 2 responsibilities. The first one is to manage the company for the long term, create a winning strategy is It will last for many years to come. I've always seen that as my foremost duty.
Is I think we are in that phase. We have a strategy that works. It's never finished. Always go slower than you expect. But Definitely with my team, with the whole Executive Board, Supervisory Board, very happy with where we are and looking into the future optimistically.
The second one is to then time your going away at a moment when the company on the more shorter term is also in good shape. Of course, last year, it was a different picture, certainly in the midst of the year. But as you've seen, we bounced back quickly And we bounced back better than expected and better than market. So the company is in great shape and that is then the moment for me to say, okay, I got a great successor, Sandler van den Nordende. Sandler has been with our Supervisory Board for 6 months now.
So he's had the opportunity to look around the company. Is He has a background with Accenture, which has a lot of aspects of where we are going as a company, predominantly in the solution space. So take the time to break them in, in Q1 of next year. And then yes, we'll see. So that was the first press release.
The second press release is on our numbers. And well, we are very happy to report those numbers is Because we're very happy with the performance of our people this year. Market leading growth, is So 20.7%, almost 21% growth to 2020, but 5% more to 2019. Is So, Andy will talk a little bit more about that, but very good. Also surprisingly, honestly, is perm.
Is I'm very happy that we invested timely in perm. I would have expected based on my knowledge that perm would be later, but we saw very early in the year already In our source right in our American RPO business very, very strong demand. And fortunately, we have the people to handle that demand and you could see that. Is After the financial crisis in 2009, we bounced back later in perm. But if you look at the numbers of perm players We're actually even better than they are and 15% ahead of 2019, where this was just 1% in the 2nd quarter.
So good. Is Outperformance in almost every market, also again in the important markets in the U. S. And France, but also in the Netherlands. So is very happy with that.
I'm on the road again, visiting clients. So that's good because that's what I like most. But Yes. We're talking to them because the mind shift they need to make is from going with an abundance of people in the midst of COVID to all the trends on scarcity which are back. We know that.
Our strategy is based on that. We're
going to
talk more about it at the Capital Markets Day. But less and less the regular recruitment model is Will Holthrough that you have a job opening, job posting, then people react, you make a selection. So that's why we are creating this big database Vivek. You can go in and with our clients discuss what's still available and how they need to change their demand, is maybe train, maybe put business elsewhere, maybe get 2 part timers, maybe get all the people, whatever. We're very well positioned.
As I said this morning in an interview, is We are part of the solution on what is happening in the labor market today. We also made an acquisition, Sella. This adds to our IT portfolio. I'm very welcome that they are. It's going to be already in our numbers in Q4.
Is So let me take you to slide 7, 1 we showed you last time and you see a very nice is We mentioned that in Q2 we were already above 2019, but you see the trend increasing. Is September was 6% higher than 2019, so a light improvement throughout the quarter. And the Trent in early October. Mind you, these are 2 weeks, of course. But still, we see a good trend, yes, is hopefully for the rest of the year.
Although, of course, you do see COVID flaring up now and again. So it's still is A volatile market as always, but yes, we're optimistic for the remainder of the year. So let's go to the countries. Is North America, very strong outperformance again, 17% growth, up 5% versus 2019. Actually, all our markets are above 2019, exception is France, but also improving towards 2019.
Is? Perm, a record with 30% versus 2019. So again, you see in this American market that is There's a lot of demand. U. S.
Props grew 11%, but they have much tougher comparison because, of course, that business dropped way less Then our staffing business did, so a great performance there. Our Canadian business, 28%, 12% above 2019. So again, our Canadian business, very strong run business with an experienced team. EBITDA margin up 40 basis points, so good stuff there. You're going to be asking about wage inflation.
We do see wage inflation in the U. S. Overall, that's good for us and we can pass on higher bill rates well in that market. Is Our French business, 12% year on year growth, 3% still below 2019, was 6% is In the Q2, but very positive momentum of 5%, sorry, positive momentum. Looking at employees working in France, We do see a steady improvement also in this quarter.
Yes, supply chain issues, is That is in I mentioned that also in the second quarter, automotive related, chip related. We do see that. Is But yes, that we move to other sectors. Effectively, this might be, again, hopefully, short lived and maybe a promise for 2022. But in markets like Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, we do see that.
But as we've shown also last year, we then pivot towards other sectors where there's demand. Is Again on our French business, prophs very strong 13% growth. And also our OC business, is Tough time last year, of course, many sectors down, but they're doing a great job. As you know, we put in a new global management team, very happy with their performance, And the profitability is also strong this quarter and improving every quarter as we speak. Is Our Dutch business, again there, 2 years ago, a little over 2 years ago, we changed management team, very happy with also this team, very market driven, very much into the basics of our business, and that pans out.
So it's a good market outperformance in the Netherlands. Also very happy that we were able to help the Netherlands as a country with supplying many people for testing, is For call centers, many people that didn't have a qualification to do this, but that is where our sector is good to get a 1,000, 2,000 people on a short notice to test from all sorts of sectors. So well done here. Plots Yard, our business, the yard business 20% up and then an exceptionally high EBITDA, not so much one off, Good. A very good quarter, but this is not the run rate that you should pencil in for the Dutch business in your XL.
But still very happy with what we delivered this quarter. Our German business also up towards 2019, So good 27% growth. You see that across the board, but also in Germany, e commerce, logistic, is A lot of demand. We're well placed predominantly for our in house, but also our staffing. So we do that well.
And also Perm here, doing well. Automotive, yes, it's a bit up and down. So we are really is I was talking about Germany, but we have Belgium clients where a few weeks we have 500 people out at one location and then 4 weeks later we got 500 people in. So that's what we're seeing right now, which again is a relevant service for our clients and we can manage. So Automotive in Germany still spotty, but still improving.
And a good Better EBIT. As I mentioned earlier, Germany is still in terms of EBIT below group average. We is Germany already started going down into 2018 as a market through is Legal changes and the automotive sector, but we kept our infrastructure in place in Germany because we believe in this market in the years to come. Is Belgium, solid performer as always, also 1% up, but still challenges here also. Is 14% market outperformance still, which given their market share is an impressive performance.
Very broad based. We have a very broad based portfolio. Healthcare, for example, also important in this business. Belgium Professionals, which is OZ predominantly, but now with Randstad well ahead of 2019. Is Italy, yes, never tired of saying that, a star performer.
Italy, Spain, is These are markets where we have a great position with relatively low penetration rate in the labor market. Italy is modernizing its labor market is at a quick pace. I also very much, by the way, as a side note, like the plan that the Draghi administration has for Italy is On modernizing and also the labor market. So this will help, but again, 34% growth, 21% above 2019. What can I say?
Is Perm up 86% 42% against 2019. So yes, they invested well and ahead of the cycle. So we did that in general, But they really picked it up and we see very quick returns. So well done Italy, Forza Italia. Is Iberia.
I'm very happy to say that our Spanish business was above 20% market share, first time in history. Is So, compliments to the Spanish management team. Our Spanish business is from a call it Tech and Touch is Field steering, one of the best businesses we have. They're constantly also experimenting with new stuff that we learn from as a group. Is So well done.
Also here supply chain issues still, but they performed very well. I mentioned last quarter that they had a strong pipeline of new clients, which is coming through is Permap. They also have RPO, which is working well. So and a great profitability development. Rest of Europe, is By and large similar trends to what we see in the other countries.
Poland is still up. Poland was one of the first movers, so to say, In terms of growth on the back of COVID and keep that up. U. K, very strong, 57% growth year on year, predominantly again is in Healthcare sorry, in Logistics, E Commerce, but also very much in what you might call the gig economy. Is And we're going to talk a bit more about that at our Capital Markets Day again.
The rest of the world, Yes. The rest of the world is like Italy, yes, always performing well. So firing from all cylinders. Great to mention that our Argentinian business, again, like Spain, by the way, crossed the 20% market share. So they became market leader is Last year and they now crossed 20%.
So they're really, really gunning for it. Brazil, great performance, predominantly in RPO. We almost doubled our headcount in Brazil this year, very much investing for growth, and it's working. Is India, of course, country very much touched by COVID late in COVID, so unexpectedly, but Jug. You might remember we created this fund to help our own people and our temps who were touched by it.
But is 13% year on year, 18% above 2019 and profitable. Biggest challenge in India is to get parts of the market which are profitable, very well done. And Vichy, who moved from CFO to CEO, is doing very well with his team. So well done. Is And overall, a great EBITDA performance.
Our global business, I mentioned it already. Our Sourceright business, is 48% up year on year, predominantly in the U. S. So this is really for us a challenge how many people we can throw at it actually is to service and help our clients. Monster turned the corner at 1% year on year.
We do expect the growth Q4 to be stronger. And on Monster, we're going to talk to you again at the Capital Markets Day because the more our technology becomes solid, is The more we can invest in marketing, so we already invested in marketing in Monster in this quarter because we do believe that, that will yield fruit. Is So more to come on that one at the Capital Markets Day. So and the numbers in detail. Henri?
Yes. Thanks so much. Good morning, everybody. So let me start by expressing my appreciation for your outstanding leadership, Jack.
Thank you.
We have a few more quarters to go together and we'll definitely make them count. So with that in mind, I'm excited To also report back on yet another strong set of results, yes, as Doug mentioned, despite some significant macroeconomic challenges, is Revenue growth in quarter 3 came in at 21% year over year and 5% above quarter 3 twenty nineteen levels. Is And the recovery of volume and revenue is broad based in all countries across all concepts, but we continue to see some regional differences still due to ongoing COVID related Kristjens. We continue to gain market share and significant parts of our portfolio without compromising our overall pricing discipline. Is And whilst we would never take market leading growth for granted, delivering it with further significantly improved profitability is setting us up well for an overall strong year.
Reported gross margin came in at 19.9%, 100 basis points improvement year over year and 40 basis points up sequentially, and we will go more into detail on the next page. The strong gross margin gave us some extra room to accelerate our investments into growth capacity, marketing and digital transformation. However, Let me also reiterate how important it is for us to safeguard attractive returns. We keep a close eye to orchestrate the right balance of growth and its conversion into EBITDA and cash. And talking about EBITDA, EUR 298,000,000 4.7 percent EBITDA margin, up 40 basis points sequentially with an incremental conversion rate of 37%, in line with guidance.
Integration one off costs came in at EUR 15,000,000 costs this quarter, reflecting some minor fine tuning of operational structures across some geographies. Is And the reported effective tax rate sits at 26% for the 1st 9 months of the year. And for the full year, We expect it to be 25% between 25% 27% as guided before. With that, Let's look into the gross margin on Page 15. As you see it, year over year, the gross margin improved by 100 basis points from 18.9% to 19.9%.
As you can see in the graph, 20 basis points of improvement can be attributed to the temp margin, And the middle blue bar reflects the margin effect of the strongly growing perm business, 60 basis points improvement year over year. Our perm business continued to do very well and increased by 74% year over year and is up 15% over 2019. Is And lastly, our business reported on the HR Solutions improved our overall gross margin with 20 basis points year over year and here our excellent growth momentum and RPO is playing a key role. Whilst our gross margin part remains difficult to predict, we reiterate the importance of safeguarding attractive gross margins in all of business activities. Smart value based pricing is fully back on the agenda as a strategic mix management and winning must customize digital support.
Is With that, let me turn the page to the OpEx bridge on Page 16. Is The reported OpEx came in at €953,000,000 25,000,000 higher sequentially, mainly to significantly accelerated RPO growth at attractive EBITA margins and increased marketing support for our talent acquisition engine Monster. We kept the overhead to revenue ratio stable at 15.2%. Of the 2,600 FT feet feet feet feet feet feet feet feet feet feet feet feet feet Es added in quarter 3, is A significant amount of consultants have been hired to support the strong RPO and firm growth. And as mentioned earlier, Excellence in conversion is a non negotiable operating principle at Randstad and requires us sailing as close to the wind as possible for the best outcome is In terms of growth and profitability.
As reported also in the last quarters, we continue to work relentlessly to identify less productive spend is to support our investments into growth and winning capabilities. That productivity journey has become part of our DNA. Will provide ongoing self help to secure sufficient fuel for growth and market leading profitability. With that in mind, let's now move on to cash flow and balance sheet is on Page 17. Our free cash flow for the quarter also came in strongly at EUR 297,000,000.
Is It's purely a function of significantly improved EBITDA and a very tightly managed operating working capital. Is DSO came down another 1.4 days year over year to 51.4 on the last 4 quarters moving base. The reported year on year free cash flow decrease is mainly explained due to the CHF 360,000,000 cash inflow, Out of which EUR 265,000,000 was sold to 3rd parties in quarter 3 2020. Our balance sheet remains to be very strong, showing a €346,000,000 net cash position and the leverage ratio of minus 0.3 excluding IFRS 16. This already includes the payment for the seller acquisition.
And as scheduled and announced at the beginning of this month, we paid a special dividend of EUR 1.6 Titou per share, totaling about EUR 300,000,000. This is not reflected in the quarter 3 net cash position, but of course, it will affect our net cash position in the 4th Walter. That brings me to my last chart already, the conclusion outlook on Slide 18. As explained, The volume recovery sustained throughout the Q3 and is broad based across our portfolio. At the same time, Visibility remains limited with ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty.
Quarter 3, 2001 organic revenue per working day Increased by 21 year over year and 5% compared to quarter 3 2019. September organic sales growth was up 6% versus 2019. The development of volumes in early October indicates continued positive momentum. Steering the business in the longer term towards an ICR of 40% 50% has served us well in the past and continues to be a relevant steering principle into the future. Hence, Overall, we are also aiming for an incremental conversion ratio of 40% to 50% for this full year.
Quarter 4, 2001 gross margin and operating expenses Both are expected to be broadly in line sequentially. And lastly, I would like to mention that there will be a positive 0.2 working day impact in quarter 4 And that concludes my remarks. Back to the operator.
Please ensure your line is unmuted locally, Edan. I will introduce you into the call.
Is.
Okay. We do have some questions coming through. Our first question comes from the line of Hans Plougere from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Your line is now unmuted.
Yes.
Hello, Hans Plouvier. Nice.
Yes. I know it's also difficult for some people to pronounce, but no problem. Is You know who I
am, so that's my point.
Now, Jacques, a few questions from my side. First of all on price and volume. Do you see, let's say, any change in there in the mix? And then especially looking to compare to 2019, you indicate that's 5% is For the quarter compared to 2019, 6% at the end of the quarter and Q2 was 3%. But do you see, let's say, any change in is Bryce becoming a bigger part of that development or do you see any material change there?
Secondly, on the gross margin, is 20 basis points improvement compared to last year. But let's say, if you compare to peers, is Carlos, you're gaining clearly market share. What are you winning really in the TAM business? Your, let's say, the contract, is it on Kyushin. Also, do you see that you believe you're a little bit more aggressive on pricing?
Could you give maybe some feeling where do you believe you are winning is Ed on compared to peers, especially in the TAM business. And lastly, a more detailed question on the Dutch margin, the 7.5% you said is exceptional. Could you give maybe some feeling what you see as the normalized margin there?
Yes. Normally, we do 2 questions. Am I okay?
Sorry about that.
So there's no material change Towards 2019 in pricing and volume. So it's very much volume. So we just have more people at work. So of course, a slightly different mix 2019, a little bit more SME. But what we for example, now see is we're getting to in house was GrowingFasters.
Now we see staffing growing faster than in house, so which I feel is logical. Is I've been with this company for 34 years on the board for 2018. We've never competed on price. So I still and pull my clients who say I've got some bad news, you're the most expensive one of all the bidders. And that's still the case.
Is I know that some companies who are growing less say that they are walking away from contracts. I'm not seeing it. We hired a lot of people. Is We were quick on the draw. We recognize market trends.
We also bring our people to where the market is. Is And we train them in our new ways program on selling remote with digital marketing, so support. So already in is September last year, we were in contact with all of our database to see when they would be hiring. So yes, we're just With more people, quicker and better. And then on the Dutch margin, Yes.
But it's normalized. But it's not 7.5%. But so anywhere around 6%.
Okay.
Thanks.
Our next question comes from the line of Rory McKenzie from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is now unmuted.
Is Morning, all. It's Rory here. Just 2 from me, please. Firstly, can you just talk about the exit rate across the regions? Within the quarter, obviously, momentum slowed a little bit in France and the Netherlands compared to Q2 versus 2019.
Is So can you just talk about the, I guess, exit rates there and what was behind that slowing specifically? And then secondly, on this is strong perm growth that you've seen. Is that just a catch up from a year before of little permanent hiring? Or is that at all some kind of substitution from temp in some areas or other types of hiring? Jacques, you talked about the changing availability of workers is And how clients need to adapt to that.
Just wondering after a decade of falling worker power with things like the gig economy, whether that this is kind of Maybe driving a reversal in some of those trends. Thank you.
Yes. Yes, exit rate per country, we're not doing that, of course. We see a strengthening trend. Is And yes, that actually goes for all countries. So we don't see any weakening or some countries picking up more than others.
Is So very much broad based again as our growth is in general. I don't think the perm is a catch up Rory. What we what you will see if As scarcity persists that clients will be prone to hire sooner. So for us, the negative effect is then that it It takes more work to keep volume growth up, but yes, there's pricing power, so it reflects in the margin. So Yes.
And it's going to be more of a candidate market. I also think you mentioned the gig economy. It will support further the fact That you cannot have a business model that hinges on hiring people with a salary system, which means that you're not insured, is You don't do anything long term, hence more towards employeeship. And of course, that's where we come in. But again, this is a theme at our Capital Markets Day, so bear with us is on that one.
We do think that this will, of course, drive penetration rates for temp up further. But again, more detail on that in a few weeks.
Is And you mentioned that you were you've been adding more capacity to areas like perm growth. What types of is Sectors or specific roles are you targeting? Obviously, it's hard at the moment to work out what's going to be a long term growing trend and just kind of the short term adjustment of the labor market. So can you talk more about where you put in more capacity in these high growth areas today?
Yes. Well, we leave that very much to the countries and it's a slightly different Set up a country. So what we did is we gave them room to invest and we asked them ideally it's in higher margin segments and perm of course is a higher margin segment. Is And but for the RPO business, which is a business in itself that takes care of large clients and outs or insources is The whole process or parts of the whole recruitment process that is firing from all cylinders, not necessarily is Towards one sector, so to say. Our French business, Dutch business, Italian business, very broad based.
Certainly, in the staffing profiles, we have a hybrid model, as we call it. So we the staffing consultant also sells perm. So It's a similar discussion. I was just asking the client what they would like. So very broad based, not is But benefiting from the fact that we put in more perm consultants early.
Perfect. Okay. Thank you very much. Is
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Zwartsenburg from ING. Marc. Please go ahead. Your line is now unmuted.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody. 2 from my side. First, maybe drilling in a bit on the balance of your top line versus your OpEx growth because is OpEx is up 22%. Is that still a reflection of still putting some extra investments in there is And at the same time, also having unit steering model at work, given your strong top line, how do you see that moving forward?
Is Are the people that are in now fully productive already? Or should we still see a sort of extra acceleration from The investments are becoming more productive in the next two quarters, that your top line continues and a strong momentum like you guide for, But at the same time that your OpEx is coming down a bit in terms of year on year growth, how should we see that balance going forward? That's my first question.
Is Yes. Marc, let me take that. Good morning. Thanks for the question. Yes, we definitely have strong steering principles.
You've seen that we are is On the long on the 4th quarter moving at 51%, and we guided for 40% to 50% for the rest of the year. Is But yes, it's a tight balance. We get weekly data through, and we are steering is In such a way that we are fully supporting organic growth, but also supporting the long term investment required is also having really, really good quarters in many years to come. But we are very, very close to it. Is That's what I said in my remarks.
The long term 45% ICR is the golden principle, and we keep at it.
Is And maybe to touch base and maybe also on the ICR, because it was my next question. You're guiding for the full year, which is quite a broad range. So if you translated back to Q4. What is the reason for not giving a more detailed guidance, say, 30% to 40% for Paul, for example.
Yes. Well, we still need to make decisions. So we talked about our RPO business. And if clients is Give us more demand for Q4, we're going to put in more people and we don't know that. So again, the visibility remains at this 4 to 6 weeks.
Is The supply chain issue in automotive. If a client all of a sudden and I mentioned is Belgian company all of a sudden having wanting 400, 500 people more than we put in people. Is So yes, e commerce. On the one hand, you have rumors that The stuff won't be on the shelves for the Christmas season. That will affect the planning of our e commerce clients.
And sometimes this goes up and down with a few 100 people. So that's what we need to navigate. Is I think we're pretty transparent given the size of our company. And I don't even know what the ICR will be for Q4 Because I don't know how many people we need to put in. Maybe we can do it with the current set of people.
I don't think so. So that's why we said broadly aligned. We will not miss any chances that we see in the market, which give us long term returns.
That's good details, Jacques. Thank you for that and well done on the quarter.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Konrad Zomer from ABN is AMRO. My apologies. Konrad, please go ahead. Your line is now unmuted.
So Konrad, Bernard, you need to rebrand. So it's either ABN or I believe you got to dump the AMRO because that doesn't work as you hear.
Well, maybe we should call it auto from now on then. But good morning all. First of all, Jacques, you've worked at the company for more than half your life, and I have a lot of respect for what you've done. You don't need my compliments, but I just wanted to say very well done from my end.
Thank you.
Just one question. We hear about staff shortages is And the lack of enough skilled labor in many markets, could you maybe rank the top three countries is Where you start to feel the impact from tightening labor markets? And can you also maybe rank the top 3 industries where you feel The tightening labor markets the most.
Yes. Well, that's a tough question, because for example in the U. S, is There was also short term tightening because of yes, sounds a bit funny because it's at the end of the day not a lot of money, but the COVID support. So the COVID support at the blue collar part of the market was too close to the actual wages when you work. So we also see that in Europe sometimes then in the perception of people it doesn't pay to work.
That is addressed now in the U. S. So most states is I've turned that back. So the federal part is out. What remains is the state part.
So that means that roughly you go from 13 is dollars an hour to $10 an hour in support. And we do see, although slowly, by the way, because people take their time for whatever reason, We do see people getting back to the workplace. So how structural is that shortage? We don't know. There's also this, of course, a bit like many companies at is Same time, are seeing demand and they want to fill that.
But on the other hand, we have supply chain issues that still dampen demand. So it's very tough for me what is the case. What is the case in Europe is, but that's more of a philosophical thing is really true. The increasing mismatch and the fact that in a country like the Netherlands, there's still 1,000,000 people that want to work or want to work more, is But I can't find the access to work, so to say, and that's what we need to work on. And the public employment services doesn't work.
Same in France, Same in Belgium, same in Germany. That's something Italy and Spain even worse by the way. That's something we need to address. We need to untap is Otherwise, we might have scarcity, which is not necessary. And at the same time, people are unemployed.
So very much on our plate. I'm spending a lot of my time talking to governments on how to address this, but also companies to change their demands. Sometimes we see demands which are in current labor markets not relevant and not achievable anymore. So companies need to have a talent strategy and change So there's a lot of moving panels, and I cannot just simply say this is a country where it's most relevant, so to say.
Is Okay. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Dominic Edridge from Deutsche Bank. Dominic, please go ahead. Your line is now unmuted.
Is Thanks so much for taking the questions. Just a couple for myself. Just probably leading on some of the questions beforehand in terms of the labor You're seeing versus sort of obviously healthy demand for those services. And where do you think you are in terms of is So that if I was to think of it in terms of the dial, are we sort of in the red zone anyway yet, particularly in the U. S.
Where it becomes a net negative is for you in terms of trying to fill vacancies. And maybe could you sort of say where we are in other jurisdictions, particularly in Europe is On that balance. Secondly, on the restructuring, obviously, most of your units seem to be doing pretty well at the moment. Can you just discuss where you've had to do is That restructuring. And then lastly, I know this may preempt the CMD that you're going to be holding, but in terms of M and A and the focus, I know you've obviously done a deal with Sella in the U.
S. Could you just say, is that sort of the areas where you're looking at? Or Should we not sort of read too much into one particular deal? Thanks so much.
Yes. Is I'll do the first and the third and Henry will do the second. Yes. I don't know where we are on the dial because it very much is Depends on the reaction of talent and the reaction of clients. So we're working very much, again, data supported with our clients on what's available in the market.
So clients can still get work done. Is If they change their profiles, if they go into skilling, if they are willing to upscale their own workforce and create room At the bottom end of their workforce, if they're willing to put work on platforms, lots of stuff that we've had discussions with them before is COVID even. And well, some picked it up, some were lukewarm. So that depends. Is So that's the short term dial.
So there's still a lot of up dialing possible, but it needs some work. And again, given our data, because we saw this coming, we can support, we is can really show that it doesn't make sense to put in more job postings to take in another supplier because the labor market or the position that the client has as an employer brand is Won't change that unless they do something else. So very interesting. The long term dial looks rather bleak. Is If we don't and this is not Randstad.
This is labor market and economic growth as such. So we need to look at is All sectors in a public private fashion, what is the available labor? Because there is a big reserve is potentially of labor and that is currently in white collar jobs at banks, at insurance companies, at the government. Those jobs will disappear In 3 to 5 years. So we need to start reskilling those people towards the sectors that matter and sectors that will have demand.
That is very tough. I've shared our Boost program where we offered free coaching for people who were due to COVID not working in a sector that we deemed not to bounce back quickly. Is Less than 7% picks us up on that offer. So this is a one to one very labor intensive move of people is We need to do again publicly, privately, together, data supported. So yes, interesting time.
Again, spending a lot of my time on that. Is And yes, the ones who get it first countries or companies will be the winners. So that's the first question.
Is Yes. The second one, Dominique, good morning. Restructuring is literally fine tuning of our organization. We set up is Small minor things across the portfolio, so nothing really worth mentioning is And also not
very material And also not
very material And also not very material
No, no. There's a lot of little positions in there, EUR 15,000,000 in total, so not really material Robert Brissen.
Yes. And I forgot the third question. M and A. M and A. Yes.
M and A. No, this is not preempting the Capital Markets Day. It's basically unchanged. So geographically, we favor U. S, is Japan.
Big markets, relatively low market share, very profitable market. We are looking at deals in the IT statement of work is Speys, of which Stella is a good example. There's one drawback of COVID. I would have hoped that there would be some bargains to be had. Is Well, apparently that's not the case.
So that's too bad. So we never shy away from is A deal that might come our way that we like even in staffing. But yes, so that's roughly the portfolio. Midsize bolt on deals, So no big transformative stuff. And in that sense, Celae is, yes, I think a good example of what we are looking at.
Great. Thanks very much for the answers.
Our next question comes from the line of Oscar Wale from JPMorgan. Oscar. Please go ahead. Your line is now unmuted.
Yes. Good morning, Jackson, Henry. Just one question from my side. Is I think this time last year in Q3 and Q4, logistics and e commerce was growing very strongly. Could you update us on where those end markets are today?
Ben. Are you still growing on a year on year basis in those end markets? Thank you.
The answer is yes. Is And that is partly because of the growth of these companies, because of course the economies are opening up. And we do think that the shift towards e commerce, which of course was happening visavis regular retail is continuing. Is But at the same time, we're also very well positioned. So we have strengthened positions with quite a lot of e commerce players.
Is We're taking market share. So therefore, there's also remaining growth.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Okay. So we have no further questions in the queue at the moment.
Is Okay. Well, that's it then. Thank you very much. Thanks for calling in. Is And we'll see you at the Capital Markets Day and certainly also at the next quarter.
Thank you. Thanks so much.