Last month, NelsonHall participated in the SD Worx Analyst Day, which included an update on key milestones since Kobe Verdonck took the reins as CEO in September 2019. The last three years have seen SD Worx supercharge its European growth and intensify its focus through achieving:

• Geographic expansion from 10 to 23 countries in Europe, where it utilizes its own IP in 17 of these
• Revenue growth from €768m to ~€1bn in gross revenue
• Customer growth from 70k to ~82k customers.

SD Worx has shared its vision for the next 5 years, keeping its course for pan-European growth through further targeting:

• Geographic expansion from 23 to 30 countries in Europe
• Revenue growth from ~€1bn to ~€2bn in gross revenue
• Customer growth from 82k to 100k customers.

To achieve this growth, SD Worx is looking to focus on the following key areas of differentiation:

• Integrated end-to-end HR solutions using the SD Worx, Gro, Flo or Pro service models
• SD Worx payroll software and subject matter expertise as the core method of delivery rather than using in-country partners
• Bringing local expertise, whereby in-country presence is core to its delivery model
• Consistent user experience, as all employees will have the same experience irrelevant of underlying software
• Aiming for a top 3 position in countries with a population >10m
• Being an employer of reference to attract talent.

SD Worx will look to support customers of all sizes and in all industries, locally and internationally.

However, as SD Worx actively drives payroll consolidation across the European HR and payroll market, one of its main challenges will be to establish the SD Worx brand and operational frameworks in its new markets.

Its aim of driving one experience across all platforms is ambitious, but with the client scale it is looking to achieve and through ongoing investments and acquisitions to support scale, this vision has strong promise. We can expect further acquisitions over the next five years to support its growth targets, in particular in Eastern and Southern Europe. This builds on recent acquisitions supporting the company’s expansion, including Integrho (Spain), Intelligo (Ireland), and HRPRO (The Balkans).