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The nation's high unemployment rate would seemingly be a disaster for the professional employer organization industry, which partially relies on the size of a client's payroll to succeed.
But the largest privately held PEO in the country, West Palm Beach-based Oasis Outsourcing, is on a growth spurt. The roll includes a recent acquisition on the Gulf Coast, when it bought Advantec, a Tampa-based PEO. “Our presence in the area will now certainly grow,” says Oasis President and CEO Mark Perlberg.
The Advantec deal, which closed in April, essentially allows Oasis to take a competitor out of a key market.
In addition to eight Florida cities, Oasis is in 11 large markets across the U.S., from Los Angeles to New York. It has more than 4,000 clients, which in turn have at least 110,000 employees. Oasis provides a range of services for its clients' employees, including human resources, employee benefits and payroll.
Meanwhile, Advantec, founded in 1998, is in a variety of industries, from health care to hospitality. It had about 500 clients and 20,000 worksite employees in its system when Oasis bought it.
Advantec, says Perlberg, also provides a new base of employees to facilitate more Oasis growth on the Gulf Coast. The combined Oasis-Advantec operation now has about 100 employees. “When you are growing like we are,” Perlberg tells Coffee Talk, “the ability to gain knowledgeable, skilled and talented employees is a big advantage.”
Perlberg has now led Oasis on a growth track for a few years. The firm had a record 2010 in revenues and profits, Perlberg says, and it's on pace to grow 20% this year. He declines to release specific revenue figures.
Perlberg adds that he believes Oasis, and the entire PEO industry, is poised for more growth, despite the economic downturn. “Our industry penetration is still awfully low,” Perlberg says. “There's a lot of people who might need a PEO and have never heard of it before.”
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