YoungCapital Group to become 'The Works' with a focus on international growth

The Works is the parent company behind the rapidly growing international recruitment agencies and job platforms YoungCapital, YoungCapital NEXT, Jobbird.com and StudentJob. Today the company is also announcing its financial results for 2020 and strong initial results for 2021. With the launch of The Works, the company is entering a new growth phase with a focus on international expansion and extending its range of brands. "We are known as a youth employment agency, but we are also much more than that. We have a strong digital platform with over 20 international websites and a database of 7.5 million people. We want to use this to strengthen our foothold in other segments within the (flexible) labour markets in the Netherlands and Europe as well. We aim to be among the top five in Europe by 2025," says The Works CEO Ineke Kooistra. 

 

Strong growth expected in 2021

The Works has achieved strong results in the first four months of 2021 due to its strong position, 'corona demand' and an improving labour market. Ineke Kooistra, CEO of The Works: "The dynamics of the labour market have changed dramatically over the past year. First with the dip caused by the crisis, and now with the increasing shortage. Now that the economy is picking up and all sectors are opening up again, turnover is rising to record levels. In the first four months of 2021, we saw sales increase by 33% compared to the same period during the previous year. We expect this growth to continue throughout the rest of the year, surpassing €600 million turnover for the first time. This is an important step in achieving our goals." In both 2020 and 2021, The Works has significantly outperformed the market. Group turnover in 2020 was €507 million compared to €515 million the year before. The market share in the Netherlands rose by almost 9% in 2020. 

 

Tech and database enable international expansion

Over the past 20 years, The Works has grown from a digital job platform for students to a leading recruitment and temporary employment company. Turnover has increased from €68 million to half a billion over the last ten years. This has mainly been achieved by focussing on young people and young professionals in the Netherlands and Germany. With the launch of The Works, the company aims to accelerate its international expansion by expanding existing market positions, as well as by pursuing a multi-brand strategy that will enable it to connect with more diverse target groups. All these brands share the same foundations, a strong network of international websites, a database of 7.5 million registered candidates and an advanced digital platform which can be linked to apps and websites.

 

New growth phase 

Ineke Kooistra continues: "In a short time we have conquered the flexible job market for young people and young professionals with our innovative approach and strong brands YoungCapital, YoungCapital NEXT, Jobbird.com and StudentJob. We know how to reach this target group better than anyone else thanks to our digital platforms and marketing power. Our sector is becoming increasingly digital and so we are leading the way as a 'human tech company'. This means that although tech is in our DNA, our people and the people we help to employ are our top priority. Over the next few years, we will continue to roll out our existing brands internationally and expand at the same time. Jobbird.com will compete with Indeed, and we want to expand this brand to more countries. We are convinced that our approach will enable us to gain strong positions in other segments in the temporary employment and labour markets. We will achieve this by establishing new brands to serve specific markets or by taking over existing ones. To realise this ambition, we have chosen to introduce The Works as the company behind leading brands."

 

About The Works

The Works is the holding company behind the fast-growing recruitment agencies and job boards YoungCapital, YoungCapital NEXT, Jobbird.com and StudentJob. Hugo de Koning, Bram Bosveld & Rogier Thewessen started the company in 2000 and are still the sole shareholders. Over the past twenty years, The Works has become the largest challenger in the temporary employment and job markets in Europe. In addition to the Netherlands, The Works is also active in Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Austria, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland. It employs 1,300 young and enterprising people who want to make a positive impact by bringing jobseekers and companies together in the best way possible. They achieve this via innovative communication solutions and their own network of international job boards. Every year, over 50,000 people work at around 2,000 different companies through The Works.