Just over a year after Bartech Group Inc. sold a stake to private equity firm Sverica International, the company is moving its headquarters to Southfield and making plans to open its first office outside the country.
The goal of better serving an unnamed client in Western Europe has spurred Bartech to seek office space there, said President David Barfield.
At the same time, he said, Livonia-based Bartech is looking to extend its services beyond overseeing all staffing vendors for companies as a managed service provider and placing contract employees.
“In order for Bartech to continue to really be a competitive force, it is important that we offer a wider array of talent management services,” Barfield said.
That could mean recruiting not only for contract or temporary employment positions, but also permanent placements. And it could mean extending the company’s vendor management role for clients beyond other staffing companies to outsourced contracts for work such as information technology projects, he said.
“I’ve got to figure out how to do more things … in more places … to become more valuable to our existing and future clients,” Barfield said.
Bartech posted $218 million in revenue last year, Barfield said. He wouldn’t disclose projections for this year, but he does expect revenue to rise, led by double-digit growth in the managed service provider business and continuing growth of about 6 percent to 8 percent in its contract staffing business.
The vendor management segment is growing because more and more companies are buying contract labor through a single managed service provider like Bartech, Barfield said. It’s a high-growth segment in the staffing industry as a result of companies’ desires to gain more control over contract staffing expenditures.
Last year, the contract staffing and managed service provider staffing industry segments grew by 7 percent, after seeing growth of 13 percent in 2011, according to Staffing Industry Review, a sibling publication to Crain’s Detroit Business. It’s projecting growth of 6 percent this year.
Bartech plans to open its office in Western Europe in leased space during the third quarter with upward of 10 employees, he said, declining to say what the company will invest to do so or which country will house it.
The new site will not only support an anchor client in the region but also U.S. and European clients “as well as our European expansion strategy,” serving as the hub of Bartech’s European operations, Barfield said.
It will be the company’s first office outside the U.S., but Bartech already has a presence in Europe, with eight employees working from a client location near London.
Demand from European automotive and rail customers for engineering and IT staffing in the United Kingdom has begun to pick up over the past six months as the economy there improves, said Mark Marheineke, executive vice president, global operations at Advantage Resourcing America Inc.’s Bloomfield Hills-based automotive group.
Advantage has five branch locations in England.
Demand for contract staffing is also picking up among European banks, Marheineke said.
Advantage saw revenue growth of about 5 percent in its U.K. engineering and IT business in fiscal 2013 ended June 30, he said. And it’s projecting the same growth this year.
Closer to home, Bartech plans to move its headquarters to the American Center on Franklin Road in Southfield during the fourth quarter. It moved its operations center from Bingham Farms to the new offices last year.
It isn’t really a cost-saving move, Barfield said. “It’s really about consolidating to improve overall efficiency and productivity … everyone is together.”
Bartech’s 190 Michigan employees will be housed at the new headquarters when the move is completed. In all, the company employs about 330.
Growth in the staffing industry is slowing down, Barfield said, as companies begin hiring full-time employees again and transitioning contract employees to full-time.
“Buyers are not forecasting to use as much temporary labor as they did in previous years … (but) our growth this year is consistent with our expectations for the company,” he said.