Jobline International has announced that due to the overall macro economic environment, it will take immediate and pre-emptive steps to reduce operating expenses by more than 25%, improving Joblineís competitiveness, ensuring growth and profitability to reach cash flow break even in Q1 2002.
Jobline will reduce costs by more than 25% from Q4 2000 levels. As part of this programme, company headcount will be reduced by approximately 150 people (25%) primarily in back office and administrative areas. Total cost of the programme will be approximately 5 million.
Market conditions resulting in an overall weakening recruitment and advertising market have affected the company primarily in Scandinavian markets. Revenues will decline slightly in Q1 2001 over Q4 2000 but will show a growth of well above 200% compared to Q1 2000. Due to improved results outside Scandinavia, in search services and in the HR software business, EBITDA for Q1 is expected to be at the same level as in Q4 2000, before one off restructuring charges. Hence, EBITDA estimates for Q1 remain on target. When fully implemented, Jobline foresees 25% incremental savings from the programme on a quarterly basis.
ìThe strength of our organisation is directly linked to our people. That fact makes such an announcement difficult. These decisions are necessary responses to changes on the macro-economic horizon and will pave the way to achieve our cash flow break even target in Q1 2002. Jobline is developing a transition assistance program for affected staff to provide them with resources to weather this difficult time, ensure that they are quickly able to locate new opportunities, and to fully utilise their talents and expertiseî said Toon Bouten, Jobline president and chief executive officer.
With nearly 1 million candidates, visits to Joblineís website grew by 23% from 13.8 million in Q4 2000 to nearly 17 million visits in Q1 2001 (as audited by MMXI / NetCheck). With more than 1 million page impressions per day in Q1 2001, Jobline solidified its position as a dominant player in the European market. The number of applications per ad increased during Q1 2001, giving Jobline customers an average of 10.4 applications per ad, representing a 70% increase from 6.1 one year ago. Additionally, Jobline issues hundreds of thousands of MatchMailTM emails weekly to its nearly 1 million candidates, cementing Joblineís increased interaction between candidates all over Europe with companies searching for talent, further evidence of the business model strength to source and service job applications.
www.jobline.com
Jobline international streamlines operations - 05/2001
Reducing costs by more than 25%
