Haines Sells Nzjobs.co.nz to Seek.co.nz

Haines Sells Nzjobs.Co.Nz; Seek Strengthens Market Leadership

The #1 and #2 employment websites in New Zealand are to merge, creating an even greater incentive for businesses to advertise job vacancies online.

Haines NZ Limited’s employment website nzjobs.co.nz has been sold to SEEK (NZ) Ltd, the companies announced today. The nzjobs website will eventually be merged with seek.co.nz, currently the largest employment website in New Zealand.

Haines chairman David Wilson says that nzjobs was established in 1998 so that Haines could offer its clients an effective online recruitment advertising solution. “However, six years later, the market has matured. New players have entered and we no longer need to own an employment website in order to offer an online recruitment advertising service to our customers,” he says.

“It’s the right time for Haines to return to our core business: helping our customers hire the right staff through the best mix of online and print recruitment advertising.”

"Both businesses and job seekers will benefit from the merger between New Zealand’s leading employment websites,” says SEEK (NZ) Ltd General Manager Jude Manuel. She says there is a natural fit between the two websites and the merger will create an even more effective marketplace for employers and job seekers. Both websites are award-winners: the NetGuide "Best Employment Site" Award has been won by either SEEK or nzjobs every year since the Awards’ inception.

“Job seekers will soon be able to search a database of an estimated 6500 current New Zealand vacancies. That’s the largest employment marketplace in the country. We expect some 190,000 New Zealand job seekers will visit seek.co.nz each month, once nzjobs is integrated. That number of candidates will generate even better results for advertisers.

“There’ll be more jobs and more job seekers in the one place. It makes for an irresistible destination. Let’s face it, the success of New Zealand businesses rests on hiring the right employees for the job. SEEK’s mission is to make that process of identifying and hiring the right candidates faster, easier and less costly.”

Advertising for staff on the web has been rapidly adopted by organisations in most sectors in New Zealand. The number of ads published on seek.co.nz has grown 174 per cent between January 2003 and January 2004. The number of visitors has grown 76 per cent in the past year alone.

Established in 1983, Haines NZ Ltd is New Zealand’s largest employment communications agency. It provides the most comprehensive range of specialist recruitment advertising and communication services in the country, and places more than 35,000 advertisements each year for a wide range of private and public sector clients.

SEEK (NZ) Ltd is located in Auckland. It is a subsidiary of SEEK Ltd, a private company based in Melbourne, which produces Australia’s largest employment website. Jude Manuel attributes the success of seek.co.nz to the effectiveness and convenience of advertising and searching for jobs online and the strength and commitment of the New Zealand team.

Launched in August 1999, seek.co.nz has been the top ranked employment website (based on the number of unique visitors) ever since independent web traffic measurement consultants Red Sheriff began monthly ratings in October 2002. SEEK also powers the employment area of XtraMSN and other leading New Zealand websites.

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