Hays plc

Hays plc is a British company providing recruitment and human resources services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

The company was founded in 1867 as an operator of wharves and warehouses on the south bank of the River Thames.

The name can be traced to Alexander Hay, who acquired a brewhouse there in 1651. It was redeveloped as a 'wharf', in fact an enclosed dock, in 1856 and renamed Hay's Wharf. It was rebuilt after the Great Fire of Southwark in 1861 and still stands; it was converted in the 1980s into a shopping and restaurant area known as Hay's Galleria. The Kuwait Investment Authority acquired an indirect 34% holding in the Company in 1975, increased to 100% in 1980, chiefly to acquire the property assets on the south bank of the Thames, which were sold to St Martins Property Group in the early 1980s.

To develop the management team for the services group, the Kuwaitis backed Hays' acquisition of Farmhouse Securities, a food distribution business owned by Ronnie Frost, and Hays then moved into chemical distribution and office support services with Frost and Peter David Thatcher Roberts as CEO. In 1986, it purchased a personnel business called Career Care Group, which had been founded by Denis Waxman. Hays was also growing its business storage services which included the brands "Hays Wharf" and "Rentacrate". In 1987, a long-planned management buyout was completed, and the company launched an Initial Public Offering in 1989. Ronnie Frost managed the combined services group from 1987 until he retired in 2001.