Good morning world. Today sees me in Newcastle. No, not the birth place of Sting, Bryan Ferry, Gazza, and domestic violence – the other Newcastle. What brings me here is a story too long to explain within this world count, however, fate has placed me with three middle-aged recruiters who all once worked together for Hays in their Newcastle office in the mid-2000s. Because of this, I was “treated” to a tour of some of their old stomping grounds last night (basically the old Hays office and a pie van). It’s been quite the trip.
Hays has had its detractors over the years, but I absolutely love a Hays recruiter. If you want to “talk shop” about what recruitment really is, you will not find a better sparring partner. Anyone who’s been through the Hays training and survived a couple of years, always has the type of reality-based recruitment cynicism that sits so comfortably with me. Hays recruiters don’t talk about EVP and “candidate journey”; they use terms like “ten before ten” and “core hours”. As a business, no other has instilled the type of commercial discipline into spotty alcoholic 23 year old like Hays has managed. If you were trained by Hays, even if you hated Jason Walker, you need to realise – they gave you something more valuable than whatever you ever billed for them. Something especially valuable over the last couple of years.
I’m not here to convince you though. Hays makes these pages again on a less complimentary basis. This blog used to be about recruitment ramblings. In 2026 there’s been so much “proper news”, that I now find myself having to do proper research. My sacrifice is your gain I suppose. Hays plc is here today because they keep selling sh*t. No, not old desks and 30,000 branded mouse mats, but whole f*cking countries. The latest cheque to clear was for Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Luxembourg, Romania and Sweden, all sold in one fell swoop to Meraki Capital, a private equity outfit that’s been on an absolute acquisition tear (seven deals this year alone, nine over two years, to be exact). Meraki Capital was founded by a chap called Nick Gordon, and they specialise in buying recruitment firms. If you check him out, he looks like a fella who knows a bit about investments but not much about Recruitment. Why he’d want to focus in this space in 2026 is anyone’s guess. We all have our kinks I guess (mine’s wetting myself in my old school uniform). By selling off these six countries, Hays plc have netted a whopping….wait for it please…£4 million. Which admittedly would get you a very nice villa in Grey Lynn.
From the language being used, there could be more to come. Hays is also “exploring options” for Belgium, Brazil, Greater China, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore and the UAE. That’s thirteen countries in total either gone or on the chopping block, all generating a roughly break-even £85 million in net fees. The plan, allegedly, is to focus on sixteen “core” countries where Hays reckons it can actually win. New Zealand hasn’t been mentioned in anything I’ve read, but maybe we can take some pride in getting promoted to “core country” status (even if it’s only because London thinks New Zealand is a state of Australia). The market liked it, for what it’s worth. Shares popped a few percent on the news, although “popped” is doing some heavy lifting when you’re still down close to half your value over the past year. Mark Dearnley, who only got the “interim” tag removed from his job title in May, is presumably keen to make this restructuring his own, having spent the previous few months as chief digital and technology officer watching the country count tick down from the sidelines. He’s also found time to bank £30 million in annualised cost savings, so maybe he was wasted fixing flickering monitors and frozen computers.
And I’m hoping than “ANZ” (has Hays would probably call us) is one of those sixteen “core” countries, as the musical chairs back home haven’t exactly settled either. A few weeks back it was David Trollope picking up Melbourne on top of his NZ job, which is classic Hays “do the numbers and we’ll send you somewhere warmer” routine. Now it’s Adam Edwards taking the reins of Hays NZ with full autonomous control, presumably so someone here can actually answer the phone without checking what time it is in Victoria first. Whether that’s a vote of confidence in the NZ business or just Hays realising that running two countries from one inbox doesn’t scale, I’ll leave to you. Either way, three leadership changes in two months is not the look of a “core market”. It could be perceived as a deck chair being moved for the third time on a ship that’s already taking on water. And “perception is reality” which is exactly the type of cultish mantra that Hays probably teaches those spotty 23 year old alcoholics.
Does any of this sound familiar? It should. We’ve watched Hudson go into administration insisting it was profitable right up until the unsecured creditors list of $27.6 million said otherwise. We watched Robert Walters quietly shut Christchurch back in 2024 and then lose Shay Peters to scurvy (can we all please insists that it was actually scurvy?). We watched Accordant go cap in hand for $5 million. And now Hays is selling off entire countries one Tuesday RNS announcement at a time. This is not a coincidence, and it’s not five unrelated stories. It’s one story, told five times, about what happens when factory recruitment model meets a market that no longer needs to buy in bulk.
Meanwhile, some smaller, specialist firms keep doing what they’ve always done: stay close to clients, stay light on their feet, and not require a board paper every time they want to sell Sweden. Funny how that works.
Genuine sympathy to anyone caught up in the latest round of “right-sizing” at Hays – although I don’t think I’m big in mainland China. Hays in NZ looks like it’s in better shape than it has been in a good while. I just hope London can see it.
^SW
