Express Personnel expanding OKC campus

[metro]

Rapid growth leads to $1.8B in sales
Staffing: Bob Funk takes a moment to talk about his company's success and plans for the future
Express aims to provide total HR services, too.

By Paul Monies
Business Writer

Rapid growth has led Express Personnel Services Inc. to begin work on another building at its corporate campus in far northwest Oklahoma City, co-founder Bob Funk said Wednesday.
The expansion is part of Funk's goal to have 900 Express Personnel offices in the United States by 2009. The company currently has 581 locations and expects to add two more this week.

"I'm adamant about that because I want to get there before I turn 70,” said Funk, who is 66.

Funk admitted that some have questioned his ambitious goal. But he has a rancher's mentality when it comes to setting goals, he said.

"You see it in the ranching business, where those ranchers live a long time,” Funk said. "I think it's because they're always looking forward to the next crop or the next year's calves. But the 900 office goal is realistic, and my job is to provide the vision.”

Express Personnel has doubled in size since 2002, so reaching 900 offices isn't impossible, Funk said. The private company ended 2006 with its best year ever. Sales grew 16.5 percent to $1.8 billion, up from $1.55 billion in 2005. Express Personnel awarded 85 new franchises and found jobs for 375,000 people across the United States.

With the market awash in private-equity capital, Funk said he expects some consolidation in the staffing industry. But he said Express Personnel was not looking to merge with or acquire another staffing firm.

"We're looking at all internal growth,” Funk said. "The culture of our company is so much different than our competitors, so to merge our culture with theirs wouldn't work. As a private company, we are not as bottom-line oriented and we can spend our capital on franchise development.”

Express Personnel recently broke ground on a 90,000-square-foot office building adjacent to its corporate headquarters at 8516 NW Expressway. Funk said the new building should be complete by late spring 2008. It will house Hallmark Management., Express Personnel's third-party insurance services company, as well as Express Personnel's customer service and computer systems divisions.

Hallmark currently provides worker's comp insurance services for Express Personnel franchises. But Funk wants to expand its services to other companies and will begin by targeting large "Fortune 50” companies.

"It's worked so successfully for us that I think it will have business value for other companies,” he said.

Funk said Express Personnel will continue to focus on what he calls "total HR solutions.” The company's Express Business Solutions division provides consulting on worker's comp, legal and safety issues, as well as assistance with training and executive recruitment.

"We will offer not just flexible staffing, but total HR help for businesses,” Funk said. "That's where this industry is headed. We're more than just recruiters and job placers.”

"We're more than just recruiters and job

placers.”


Bob Funk

[HOT ROD]

why couldn't he build downtown? Of course, we'd want a building much larger than 90,000 sq feet. What is that going to be, 5 storeys?

[stlokc]

I don't know very much about this particular company and why they would or would not be downtown. But the last time I was home I noticed all the new corporate office buildings going up along Memorial, around Quail Springs and points west. Several were corporate HQ. They were smaller buildings then you would find downtown, to be sure, but these were obviously companies that needed office space and have money. I guess my reaction was that there is obviously no "peer pressure" in the corporate community in OKC to invest downtown. A lot of businesses don't seem to feel a lot of civic responsibility in this regard, and they are not pressured by public opinion in this regard. It would appear that as far as the downtown renaissance has gone, a lot of people that I know in OKC still see downtown as a fun place to come and play every couple of months, catch a ball game, have a beer, etc. but when it comes to the day-to-day of their lives, it just hasn't reached that level yet. The irony is: I would think if I owned a business in OKC, I would want to be downtown because of its central geography...easier to attract the best talent from all over town, N, S, E, W if you are in a central location. Who from Norman or Midwest City is going to want to commute out to farthest NW Expressway? I wonder if the next phase of downtown development shouldn't focus on refurbishing some of the Class B and C office space, or working on incentives to get business back downtown. Lofts and entertainment are very important and should be encouraged at all levels, but there has to be a business component to the central city.