Posted Sep 28, 2022, 7:01 AM
The president of Proman, Roland Gomez, is very proud of his latest acquisition. “We are now on the heels of the world leader in interim Randstad in his own country,” he smiles. Before the summer, the one who imposed himself in thirty-two years as the 4e European player in temporary work since the countryside of Manosque, a small town in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, entered the world Top 10 with the purchase of the Dutch Timing which should enable it to cross 4 billion this year. euros in turnover. The operation is the most important of the group since its creation.
Number 3 in the Netherlands, Timing has a network of around a hundred agencies in the fourth European market (18 billion euros in turnover) and serves more than 1,200 companies with 830 permanent employees.
Acquisitions in Europe
Proman does not intend to stop there. Excluding Timing, the group already has 750 agencies around the world (nearly half of which are in France) which work with more than 45,000 companies in industry, construction, the nuclear sector, pharmaceuticals, automotive and hotel. The operation concluded in the Netherlands now allows it to post 110,000 temporary workers on assignment every day, the equivalent of a group like CMA CGM.
The tense international context should now enable it to make other acquisitions, particularly in Italy, and to take advantage of very strong growth in American demand, where its subsidiary plans to quintuple its activity by 2025. At this date, the Manosque group could achieve 6 billion euros in turnover is aimed at forty-seven years the eldest of the Gomez siblings.
war chest
His secret to success, he inherited it from the difficult beginnings of the company where his founder father had to fight in a rural environment, without cash, at the mercy of bad payers and market reversals. “We drew four golden rules from this which now guide the management of the group: diversifying our activities (Proman covers construction as well as logistics, industry and the tertiary sector), not depending on a single client (the most important among 30,000, accounts for 2.5% of turnover), check their solvency, and treat temporary workers with loyalty, respect and recognition (he deploys more than 50,000 missions to date)”, explains the boss, who entered in the company as work-study apprentices once they have completed their economics baccalaureate.
“I climbed all the rungs on merit through hard work,” continues this relentless man who has no other occupations than time with his three children and running to decompress. This common family thread has already convinced the shareholders of a dozen companies to join the group since the start of its international offensive in 2013: Heads, Paramount Staffing, TalentForce, Lem, AàZ Emplois, etc.
Its activity abroad now represents half of its turnover and the group still has a war chest of several tens of millions of euros under its feet, together with a low level of debt to carry out new acquisitions.
Official scout for Rugby World Cup 2023
External growth is not the only lever on which this man counts, always impeccably dressed in a suit without a tie, to become “the first family group of human resources in the world”. Official recruiter of several thousand reception, service, driving and security personnel for Euro 2016, he is again for the 2023 Rugby World Cup France. Enough to consolidate its organic growth: last year, Proman recorded an activity double that of the market with nearly a 20% increase.
* The Entrepreneur of the Year award is organized by EY, in partnership with HSBC, Verlingue, Steelcase and Bpifrance.
