Robert Walters’ eponymous founder unveils retirement plans as recruiting giant posts record profits
- Walters founded the company in 1985 after an eight-year stint with Michael Page
- His departure comes as the recruiter revealed turnover surpassed £1bn last year
- London-based Robert Walters employs more than 4,300 people in 31 countries
Robert Walters will retire next month after nearly four decades of leading the recruiting giant he founded, the group said Friday.
The veteran entrepreneur founded the company in 1985 after an eight-year stint with another recruitment firm, Michael Page, with an initial focus on mid-level professionals.
Since the recession of the early 1990s, the group has grown to become one of the UK’s most prominent headhunters, with more than 4,300 employees in 31 countries.
Departure: Veteran entrepreneur Robert Walters has announced he will retire next month as CEO of the eponymous recruiter after nearly four decades in charge
He plans to leave on April 27, after which he will be replaced by Toby Fowlston, who currently leads the global recruiting brands Robert Walters and Walters People and was previously CEO of the company’s Asia-Pacific region.
Confirmation of the CEO’s departure came as his company reported its best-ever annual results due to ongoing pandemic-induced labor shortages and fierce competition for talent that prompted employers to impose significant pay increases.
For more specialist and in-demand positions, some companies offered a 20 percent salary increase for staff who switched jobs, the company claimed.
Revenue exceeded £1 billion last year, while net fee income rose by more than a fifth to £428.2 million, with Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, where the collective generates three-quarters of gross profit, the backbone of growth.
Trade in China continued to be hit hard by the lockdown restrictions, but fee income reached record levels in Japan, New Zealand and seven European countries, including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Profits in the UK also increased thanks to strong demand for legal and fintech workers, even as many high-profile tech giants began imposing major layoffs amid a broader economic slowdown.
Boom: Labor shortages and intense competition for talent prompt employers to impose significant wage increases, which is a financial boon for the recruiting industry
Market confidence and hiring patterns were particularly impacted in the second half of 2022 by rising uncertainty due to the war in Ukraine and rising interest rates.
CEO Robert Walters noted that this unpredictability continued into 2023 and that it was “too early to say whether this is a short-lived correction or a more protracted economic slowdown.”
But he said the London-based company was “well positioned to react quickly to any further deterioration in market confidence or to quickly take advantage of market opportunities as they arise.”
Of his successor Toby Fowlston, who has been with the company since 1999, he said the company was left in “safe hands” and that it will “go from strength to strength for years to come.”
Leslie van der Walle, the company’s chairman, said Walters had made an “incredible journey” and was at the forefront of both the recruiting industry and the creation of one of the “world’s leading international recruiting groups”.
He added that Walters “successfully helped the group navigate the dot-com crisis, the global financial crisis and a global pandemic and … will leave the group next month in great shape to continue its growth story” .
Robert Walters shares were up 2 percent Friday morning at 502 pence, though they’ve lost about 18 percent of their value over the past 12 months.