Capital Markets Day in London presents vision to Make the Future Work for everyone and showcases digital innovations

At the Capital Markets Day, CEO Alain Dehaze will share his vision of the megatrends shaping the industry, and how the Adecco Group is capturing these opportunities by leveraging its strengths and creating true differentiation. Two key pillars underpin our strategy. Our GrowTogether programme will drive revenue growth and strengthen profitability by transforming the core of the business. Our Digital Ventures will capture new revenue opportunities and enhance profitability by expanding our activities into higher-margin ‘new frontiers'.

Hans Ploos van Amstel, Group CFO, will present updated financial commitments, underpinning our ambition to deliver leading total shareholder returns. These commitments are:

(1)    Accelerate structural organic revenue growth, and increase the revenue growth GDP multiplier from 3x to 4x by 2020;

(2)    Achieve sustained EBITA margin improvement, and deliver SG&A productivity savings of EUR 250m per annum by 2020 (a 100bps reduction in SG&A/revenues);

(3)    Maintain our progressive dividend policy, even in a recession, and deliver continued strong free cash flow while making strategic investments.

Investments in GrowTogether and Digital Ventures have already begun. These investments are holding back EBITA margin progression in 2017-18, but will strengthen and enhance our profitability and growth in 2019-20 and beyond. Further details of the benefits and investment costs of GrowTogether and Digital Ventures are shown in the Appendix.

New technologies offer the Adecco Group exciting opportunities for growth and margin enhancement. Today we showcase six examples of digital innovation, driven by our distinctive co-creation approach. Adia is a mobile-first, end-to-end platform that enables employers to easily request temporary staff for hourly or daily assignments; it was developed in close collaboration with Infosys, who will join us today to share their perspectives on our partnership. Mya is an AI-enabled chatbot that automates outreach, screening, and communications with jobseekers; with our global partnership agreement with Mya Systems, these tools will be integrated into our solutions. Virtual Reality recruiting from Penna and legal eDiscovery from D4 demonstrate how our selective acquisitions add new capabilities that we can leverage across our businesses. And Adecco Analytics and Lee Hecht Harrison's Active Placement show how we harness the entrepreneurial spirit within the Group to drive innovation.

In conjunction with today's presentations, the Adecco Group is also providing an update on current trading. In July and August, revenues increased by 6% organically and trading days adjusted, in line with the trend in Q2 2017. So far in September, volume growth indicates a continuation of this trend.

CEO, Alain Dehaze, said: “We have a clear vision for the successful future of the Adecco Group. The megatrends shaping our industry bring exciting new opportunities for profitable growth. With our strategic agenda to Perform, Transform and Innovate, we will capitalise on these opportunities. By strengthening the core of our business and leading in digital innovation, we will accelerate growth, enhance our margin and deliver increased total shareholder returns.”

Appendix included in the pdf.

The Capital Markets Day morning session will be webcast from 11.00 to 13.00 CEST.