SD Worx Holding invests heavily in growth

Antwerp, 28 February 2020 – With a consolidated turnover of EUR 767.6 million (+29.1%) and a normalised EBITDA of EUR 85.4 million (+25.4%), HR services provider SD Worx achieved excellent growth results in 2019.

"SD Worx People Solutions, our business unit for Payroll & HR, has good dynamics driven by positive results in all of our home markets, important deals with clients generating recurrent income and a normalised EBITDA that is evolving well. The operating margin is going up as planned, so we can look back on a very good year”, says Filip Dierckx, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SD Worx Holding. “At the same time, we are investing heavily in the transformation of our company, with a focus on extensive digitisation in order to respond to changing customer needs and be ready for the future. The activities within SD Worx Staffing & Career Solutions, the business unit that focuses on staffing and flexible work, are situated in a market that is under pressure. On top of that, last year we invested in the integration of the two companies we acquired. Fortunately, we were able to stabilise the price pressure and keep the relative gross margin constant. We look to the future with confidence, and firmly believe that this trend towards flexible work will continue”.

 

Becoming number 1 in Europe

Within the consolidated turnover of EUR 767.6 million, SD Worx People Solutions – which today provides payroll and HR services to more than 65,000 clients in Europe – saw its turnover increase, mostly organically, from almost EUR 466.7 million in 2018 to EUR 505.1 million in 2019. Normalised EBITDA grew from EUR 63.9 million¹ in 2018 to EUR 77.6 million in 2019.

 

“SD Worx People Solutions has the ambition to become Europe’s number one player by 2023 with a strategy based on customer centricity, innovation and an offering of solutions to manage the entire HR lifecycle”, says Kobe Verdonck, CEO of SD Worx People Solutions. “We won’t get there with organic growth alone, so we are constantly looking for acquisitions that strengthen us, both in terms of geographical presence and solutions for our customers”.

 

Investing in integration

SD Worx Staffing & Career Solutions focuses on the market for flexible work, and provides services relating to temp work, secondment, recruitment & selection, career guidance, outplacement and specific payroll for temps. The entity achieved a turnover of EUR 264.1 million and an EBITDA of EUR 8.4 million in 2019, representing strong inorganic growth compared to the previous year, as this segment was only acquired in the course of 2018 and has now for the first time been consolidated for a full year.

 

"In 2019 SD Worx Staffing & Career Solutions has taken important steps with the launch of the SD Worx Staffing Solutions brand and the integration of Vio and Flexpoint," says Christophe Petit, CEO SD Worx Staffing Solutions. “In Belgium, these integration efforts led to a significant improvement in our cost structure, although it was a difficult year in terms of revenues as a consequence of the current market conditions. In the Netherlands, contrary to the market trend, we did manage to increase revenues, although this required suitable investments in our office network.”

 

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