Express Personnel Services changes ownership

by Eric Olson

SBJ Reporter

eolson@sbj.net

The Springfield area's Express Personnel Services franchise is under new ownership. Longtime franchisees Robert and Nikki Sells sold the business Jan. 30 for an undisclosed amount to Mark and Sharon Snow of The Snow Group LLC, a commercial real estate company.

Sharon Snow will run the day-to-day office operations while Mark Snow continues working in real estate. The Snows took over the Express Personnel office at 2045 S. Waverly on Feb. 2.

The Sells have moved into corporate work for Express Personnel. Nikki Sells is vice president of franchising for Express Services Inc., the international parent company of Express Personnel, and Robert Sells is performing Nikki's former job of regional developer for Missouri, Kansas and western Florida.

The Snows' asset purchase consists of franchise rights for Greene, Christian, Webster and Lawrence counties and part of Barry County, an office of five employees, and the Sells' book of business, Sharon Snow said. The building was not included in the sale; the Sells are leasing it to the Snows.

Despite a five-county territory, the Sells had concentrated the staffing business in Springfield, Nixa and Ozark. "And we will continue that for a while," said Sharon Snow, who was attending ownership training courses at Express Personnel's Oklahoma City corporate headquarters.

While she's at training for three weeks, Mark Snow is running the Springfield office; he will train at a later date as a matter of formality for new owners. Sharon Snow said there are no immediate plans to change the business's current practices, but once they settle in they'll consider growth opportunities in the franchise area.

"Owning the rights to it, of course, we'll definitely investigate what business is out there," she said. "Until we do that it's really hard to say what we're going to do."

The Sells decided to sell the franchise about 18 months ago, and the Snows were natural candidates. The couples have been friends since 1990, when the Sells opened the Express franchise in Springfield.

Nikki Sells is confident the new owners can build on the office's record 1,346 employed last year.

"There is plenty of growth opportunity for them," Sells said, adding that the Snows were chosen based on their reputations in business and ethics.

The Snows may have jumped into the staffing industry at just the right time, during the early stages of a recessional rebound. According to American Staffing Association, temporary staffing levels nationwide peaked in 2000, before the recession hit, at 2.65 million people employed daily on average through staffing agencies. But in the third quarter of last year, the most recent data available, staffing levels jumped to their highest point 2.32 million since the final quarter in 2000.

"This is expected to be a large growth time for the staffing industry," Sharon Snow said. "We see it as a huge long-term opportunity."

Opportunity is what Nikki Sells said led her to the corporate job, where she is responsible for growing franchise sales. There are 281 Express Personnel franchise owners with 421 locations throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and South America, Sells said from her Oklahoma City corporate office.

According to Express Personnel's Web site, the privately held company projects $2 billion in revenues this year. Annual franchise fees are $20,500.

While Nikki Sells has relocated, Robert Sells doesn't expect to join her in Oklahoma City until summer. Moving from Springfield has been difficult, Nikki Sells said. "I love Springfield, and one of the hardest decisions I've made was leaving."

Her absence also leaves several board positions vacant. Sells served on the local boards of directors for The Bank and Ozarks Technical Community College's Building Corporation, and statewide on the Leadership Council of Missouri-National Federation of Independent Business and the national Small Business Administration Regulatory Fairness Board.

"All of those things I had to leave," she said. "That was one of my considerations. This position is so big and so challenging for me that I couldn't pass it up."

Sharon Snow was an account executive for Springfield Business Journal for 10 years before going into television sales at KDEB-TV in 2000. In May 2003, Snow joined her husband in commercial real estate, and said she will retain her license.