Hays' origins can be traced back to the seventeenth century, when its activities involved the ownership and management of wharves and warehouses on the south bank of the River Thames. A public listing was obtained in 1958 and the Group began to expand in the mid-1960s in the related businesses of transport, storage and warehousing. Its traditional businesses continued to decrease in importance, and its last wharf in the Pool of London was closed in 1969. During the late 1970s, the Group further diversified into chemical distribution and document storage.
In 1975, St Martins, which at that time owned 34 per cent of Hays, was acquired by the Kuwait Investment Office. St Martins subsequently bid successfully for the remaining shareholding in the Group in 1980, and then transferred Hays' south bank properties to its own property division for development. Following the takeover, Hays made a number of acquisitions in various disparate activities.
In 1981, Hays acquired Farmhouse Securities Limited, a private food distribution company substantially owned by the Frost family, and Ronnie Frost joined the Group. He became Chief Executive in 1983. In the period 1983 to 1987, Hays disposed of many of its non-core manufacturing interests and certain other distribution businesses, and acquired significant businesses in chemical distribution and office support services. A third core activity, Personnel, was established in 1986 when Hays acquired the Career Care Group.
In November 1987, the executive Directors, led by Ronnie Frost and with the involvement of six other senior managers, organised the purchase of the KIO's interests in Hays.
On 20 October 1989, Hays once more became a listed company. The decision to float was a brave one as on that date, following the resignation of Nigel Lawson, markets started to crash. Of the shares, only 8% were bought by the public, with the other 92% taken on by institutions.
This was not a concern to Hays as the major institutions had made it quite clear that they would not only back Hays, but would remain loyal supporters. That confidence was repaid, for Hays has become a leading company in its sector. In December 1996, Hays became a member of the FTSE 100 group of companies.
The 90's witnessed a period of tremendous growth with Hays expanding rapidly across Europe. First into France, quickly followed by further expansion into a number of other countries including Germany, Italy and Poland.
Ronnie Frost retired in June 2001, having led the Group for 18 years. He was succeeded by our current Chairman, Mr Bob Lawson and in November 2002 Colin Matthews was appointed as Chief Executive Officer.
It had become obvious that the global economic situation was changing dramatically and questions were being raised as to whether Hays current structure was the correct one to move the Group forward. Colin immediately embarked upon a full and thorough Strategic Review looking at every aspect of our operations.
On 4 March 2003, Colin Matthews announced the results of the Strategic Review. The Review determined that Hays should transform itself into a pure specialist recruitment and HR services business. This transformation would be completed by the disposal of all non-core businesses other than Hays Personnel.
Hays Personnel has an outstanding track record of profitable growth and excellent cash generation and is well positioned to develop strongly in a growing market.
Since the announcement of the results of the Strategic Review, Hays has sold all of its former Commercial Division and its Logistics operations.
On 1 July 2004 Denis Waxman became Chief Executive replacing Colin Matthews who stepped down following the completion of the Group restructure.
On 1 November 2004 Hays demergered its mail business, DX Services plc which represented the final significant step in the tranformation of Hays.
Hays has now been trading as a specialist recruitment group since this period and in its 2008 Annual Results, reported record fees and profit as a recruitment-focused business.
In November 2007 Denis Waxman retired after nearly 40 years involment with the specialist recruitment business of Hays.Mr Alistair Cox became Chief Executive on 15 November 2007.
