PwC buys Dutch human capital consultancy Focus Orange

The Dutch wing of PwC has acquired Focus Orange, an Amsterdam-based consultancy specialised in employee benefits, executive compensation and pensions. 

With a team of 25 partners and consultants, Focus Orange is a medium-sized player in the Dutch human capital consultancy market. The firm has now become part of the People & Organisation service line of PwC, which is part of the Tax & Legal division. 

Focus Orange co-founders Camiel Selker, Ronald Doornbos and Raymond Welmers (all of whom previously worked at Willis Towers Watson) have been appointed partners at PwC as part of the integration. Crunchr, a SaaS subsidiary of Focus Orange backed by staffing giant Randstad, is not part of the deal and will continue as an independent entity led by Dirk Jonker, the fourth co-founder of Focus Orange.

With the acquisition – PwC’s first in the Netherlands since it snapped up Salesforce specialist ABSI in April 2019 – the firm plays into growing demand for people-driven transformation services, which has since the corona crisis moved up the strategic agenda of corporates and public organisations.

Bas van de Pas, service line leader of the People & Organisation practice, said: “PwC helps organisations on topics such as workforce transformation, embracing 21st century skills and meeting the demands of new pension requirements and regulations.” 

“These developments will only become more important in the coming years. Focus Orange bolsters our capabilities on these and more topics, and will enable us to even better serve our clients.” 

Focus Orange works together with clients such as Arcadis, Eneco, Essent, FrieslandCampina, Hema, KLM and Randstad, supporting them with designing compensation & benefit packages, developing pension schemes and creating insight into employee performance, among others.

“After operating for ten years, we had reached a crossroad – either continuing to grow organically, or to accelerate our position with a strategic partner. PwC is a perfect fit; their ambition, proposition to the market and organisational structure are fully in line with our current ambitions,” said Doornbos. 

Selker addeds: “Under the PwC banner we can make even more impact at our clients and for our employees.”