Delivering GrowTogether productivity savings while investing in strategic initiatives
Summary and highlights
Revenue growth 2% organically1 and trading days adjusted (TDA)
Continued outperformance in France; revenues up 5% with improved margin trend
Strong performance in permanent placement, revenues up 19% organically
Gross margin 18.7%, up 20 bps year-on-year, driven by perm, General Assembly and Vettery
EBITA2 margin excluding one-offs3 5.0%; underlying productivity gains offset by investments in strategic initiatives (-30 bps yoy) and Germany (-20 bps yoy)
Net income attributable to Adecco Group shareholders EUR 270 million
Revenues in September and October combined up 1%, organically and trading days adjusted
Sale of Beeline stake completed resulting in gain-on-sale of EUR 113 million
"As we communicated during our September investor seminar, trading in Q3 2018 was challenging, with growth slowing in a number of European markets. Against this backdrop, overall the Group delivered a solid performance. Organic revenue growth was 2%, including improved performances in Japan and Rest of World, and another quarter of significant outperformance in France, our largest market.
Our businesses responded decisively to the slowdown in market growth, making the appropriate cost adjustments to protect our margin. And while ongoing strategic investments and the transformation of our German business impacted the headline EBITA margin, we made good progress in improving underlying profitability. GrowTogether is now scaling up and delivering real results in the markets where it is most progressed, such as the US, UK and France. We will deliver the EUR 50 million productivity savings target in 2018, on the way to EUR 250 million in 2020. And as we do so, we are further differentiating our solutions, building a digitally-enabled offering that will support future growth.
As the Group's digital transformation builds momentum, it is the passion and commitment of our colleagues around the world that is making it a reality. Creating a positive and inspiring work environment is vital to our success. I am therefore delighted to report that the Adecco Group ranked in the top five 'World's Best Workplaces', for the second year running, according to the recently published 2018 Great Place to Work® survey."
Alain Dehaze, Group Chief Executive Officer
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Adecco Group AG, formerly Adecco S.A., provides human resource (HR) services. The Company's services include temporary staffing, permanent placement, outsourcing, career transition. It operates through two business lines: Staffing and Solutions. The Staffing business line includes General Staffing, which includes Office and Industrial, and Professional Staffing, which includes Information Technology, Engineering and Technical, Finance and Legal, and Medical and Science. The Solutions business line includes Business Process Outsourcing, which includes Managed Service Programs, Recruitment Process Outsourcing and Vendor Management System, and Career Transition and Talent Development, which includes outplacement, career development, change management solutions, training and consulting. Its segments include France, North America, UK & Ireland, Germany & Austria, Japan, Italy, Benelux, Nordics, Iberia, Australia & New Zealand, Switzerland, Emerging Markets and Lee Hecht Harrison.
ADECCO GROUP AG 
