During the unprecedented Covid-19 situation, our key priority remains the health and safety of our employees, candidates, clients and other stakeholders," says CEO Jacques van den Broek. "I'm incredibly proud of my Randstad colleagues given their everlasting commitment and dedication with which they are responding to these challenging times. Our Q2 results demonstrate the strong operational agility of our highly experienced management teams, while underpinning the resilience of our diversified portfolio and free cash flow generation.
Trading conditions in the second quarter reached the low point in April when country lockdowns were most intensified. Since then, the revenue decline started to gradually ease into May and June in most of our geographies. Visibility remains very limited, with ongoing high macroeconomic uncertainty and some recent signs of regional lockdowns again. We were pleased with our positive EBITA in Q2, reflecting a strong recovery ratio of 42%. Our free cash flow came in high at € 530 million, marking the counter cyclical nature of our working capital requirements, and hence the resilience of our free cash flow generation through the cycle. This further solidifies our strong liquidity and solvency position.
Building on the 'safely back to work' alliance with our industry peers and supported by governments, employers and trade unions in 26 countries, Randstad has ensured the safe and healthy return of more than 90,000 people to the workplace since the start of Covid-19. The great spirit amongst our workforce and successful roll-out of our digitally enhanced activity-based field steering model will be instrumental to our performance going forward. We are certain that Randstad has never been better positioned to further strengthen its global market leadership."
Watch the video from our CEO Jacques van den Broek on the Q2 results.