ABC enters temporary staffing arena

JOBS GROW JOBS AS HR FIRMS EXPAND

Recruitment firm ABC Consultants has entered the temporary staffing arena through its newly formed subsidiary KQ Staffing.

The company, over the last four months, has secured 25 clients and placed 30 people on its rolls.

Tarun Bali, CEO ABC Consultants (who is also heading KQ now) said, "By March KQ will have at least 120 people working out of five cities"" Chennai, Hyderabad, Bombay and Delhi besides Bangalore."

KQ will not focus on the low value, high volume generic staffing solutions but look at filling teams working on niche projects. KQ is targetting a net revenue of over Rs 15 crore, and a capitalised revenue (billing) of Rs 100-200 crore within 24 months.

If KQ meets this target (they are pretty steep) then it will be sitting amidst current leaders Ma Foi, PeopleOne Adecco and Team Lease in the temp staffing space.

Bali said that the subsidiary will function independently of ABC Consultants and is already in talks with global players to strike some working alliance.

"We will definitely not sell out. The Rs 350 crore (capitalised revenues) ABC and its associate concerns have deep pockets and have been in this sector for the past 35 years. We want the global partner to bring in technology and processes to support the critical back end."

However, KQ's options will be limited as leaders Vedior and Adecco have already aligned with Ma Foi and PeopleOne, respectively. Eligible suitors include Kelly and Manpower.

Also, this is the second avatar for KQ. In 2000, ABC had floated karma quest.com as an online jobsite, only to hand over the database and portfolio management to monster.com subsequently.

The hive-off followed a round of restructuring when ABC sold its stake in its HR consulting arm to JV partner Watson Wyatt.

Currently, ABC has a presence in the recruitment business and has retained the executive search business through Accord Group India.