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Hays plc
Company type	Public
Traded as	LSE: HAS; FTSE 250 component;
ISIN	GB0004161021
Industry	Recruitment
Founded	1867
Headquarters	London, England
Key people	Andrew Martin, Chairman ; Dirk Hahn, CEO ; James Hilton, Group Finance Director
Revenue	£7,583.3 million (2023)
Operating income	£197.0 million (2023)
Net income	£138.3 million (2023)
Number of employees	13,356 (2023)
Website	www.haysplc.com

Hays plc is a British multinational company providing recruitment and human resources services across 33 countries globally. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.^[3]

History

The company was founded in 1867 as an operator of wharves and warehouses on the south bank of the River Thames.^[1] The name can be traced to Alexander Hay, who acquired a brewhouse there in 1651. It was redeveloped as a 'wharf', in fact an enclosed dock, in 1856 and renamed Hay's Wharf. It was rebuilt after the 1861 Tooley Street fire and still stands; it was converted in the 1980s into a shopping and restaurant area known as Hay's Galleria.^[4]

The Kuwait Investment Authority acquired an indirect 34% holding in the company in 1975, increased to 100% in 1980,^[1] chiefly to acquire the property assets on the south bank of the Thames, which were sold to St Martins Property Group in the early 1980s.^[5]

To develop the management team for the services group,^[5] the Kuwaitis backed Hays' acquisition of Farmhouse Securities, a food distribution business owned by Ronnie Frost, and Hays then moved into chemical distribution, commercial distribution and office support services with Frost and Peter Roberts as directors.^[6] In 1986, it purchased a personnel business called Career Care Group, which had been founded by Dennis Waxman.^[7] Hays was also growing its business storage services which included the brands "Hays Wharf" and "Rentacrate". In 1987, a long-planned management buyout was completed,^[5] and the company launched an initial public offering in 1989.^[1] Ronnie Frost managed the combined services group from 1987 until he retired in 2001.^[6]

In March 2003, Hays announced that, following a strategic review, it intended to reposition itself purely as a specialist recruitment business and that the company would dispose of all non-core business, including its commercial and logistics operations.^[6] Following Hays' change of focus to a recruitment company, Denis Waxman became CEO in July 2004.^[7] In November 2004 Hays de-merged its DX delivery network which represented the final step in the transformation of Hays into a recruitment business.^[8] In November 2007 Waxman retired and was succeeded by Alistair Cox.^[9]

Current operations

Hays is a specialist recruitment group with operations in the UK and Ireland, Continental Europe (in Germany pronounced Hei(s), as health=Hei(l)), the Americas and Asia Pacific regions.^[10] It has a fairly equal balance of work in temporary and permanent recruitment, which contributes to financial stability through business cycles.^[11] Hays operates in 33 countries.^[12]

Involvement in price-fixing

In 2009 the Office of Fair Trading imposed a £30.4m fine against Hays for its involvement in price-fixing. The firm, along with five other recruitment firms, formed a cartel called the Construction Recruitment Forum which agreed to boycott Parc, a new company that had entered the market in 2003 to act as an intermediary between construction firms and recruitment firms. The six firms received fines totalling £39.3m, Hays receiving the biggest fine.^[13] Hays had its fine cut by the Competition Appeal Tribunal from £30.4m to £5.9m following an appeal against the level of a fine imposed by the Office of Fair Trading in September 2009.^[14]