Recruiter Randstad's core profit meets market estimates in Q2 (updated)

Adecco AG

23/07/2025 06:28

Recasts, adds CEO quotes on market environment in paragraphs 3-4, on cost reductions and defence market in paragraphs 7-10

Q2 underlying core profit at 171 mln euros, meets consensus

Signals stabilization in some key markets

'Scored some wins' with European defence players, CEO says

By Olivier Cherfan and Mateusz Rabiega

July 23 (Reuters) - Randstad RAND.AS signalled improvements in some key markets on Wednesday, with higher demand for outsourcing of recruitment, as staffing firms face a new normal marked by heightened uncertainty.

Recruiters including Randstad, Adecco ADEN.S and Hays HAYS.L have voiced concerns about the worsening job market driven by an escalating global trade war and economic struggles in major European markets like Germany and France.

But the market sentiment has been thawing lately, Randstad CEO Sander van 't Noordende said.

"We have been on a long downward trend, and that seems to be stabilizing today," he told Reuters about market demand. "There's still uncertainty in the market, but that's ... the new norm."

The world's largest employment agency's earnings before interest, taxes and amortization, and before one-offs, were 171 million euros ($200.63 million) in the second quarter. Analysts polled by it were expecting them to reach 170 million euros.

Core earnings in France saw a slower organic decline of 14% than in recent quarters, while a core loss in Germany narrowed from a year earlier.

The earnings were helped by cost reductions, including from a lower average headcount on a full-time-equivalent basis. Randstad also expects slightly lower operating costs in the third quarter compared to the second.

"We have no specific big plans to cut workforce or anything like that," van 't Noordende said about the company's savings measures.

Asked about Randstad's interest in the European defence sector, which he had mentioned in April, the CEO said the company was engaging with the market's largest players.

"We scored some wins, let's say good wins, but not wins that I can share names of, but with larger players in Germany, France, and here in the Benelux," he said.

($1 = 0.8523 euros)

(Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega and Olivier Cherfan in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)

((gdansk.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 66 00;))