QRI purchases Conn.-based Monroe Staffing

CRANSTON – Staffing and consulting service Qualified Resources International LLC has acquired Monroe Staffing, a $40 million private company based in Monroe, Conn.
Financial details are not being disclosed at this time, Lisa J. Burns, manager of operations and business development at the Cranston firm, told Providence Business News this morning. “But I can tell you … they’re wholly owned by QRI now.”
The transaction had been in the works “for several months … these things take a long time,” she said. “It was finalized on the 14th.”
Monroe Staffing’s previous owner, Mark Christo, whose father founded the Connecticut firm about 30 years ago, will remain with QRI to oversee corporate business development.
There is no plan to close the former Monroe offices, Burns added. “They have nine office locations [all in Connecticut], and they will all remain.” Together with QRI’s previous locations – the Cranston headquarters plus branch offices in Fall River and Fitchburg, Mass. – they give the combined firm 12 locations, all in New England.
“This acquisition will provide our clients with expanded services and capabilities and will further position QRI as a customer-focused market leader … specializing in engineering and information technology disciplines, administration, clerical and light industrial,” Timothy J. Harrington Jr., QRI’s president, said in a statement.
“For 2008, we’ll really be looking at where our capabilities are right now,” Burns said.
“We have expansion plans for the East Coast,” she added, saying: “We’re looking to open some other offices next year; they will be in New England.”
Qualified Resources International LLC, founded by Emily Harrington in 1992, is a Cranston-based staffing and consulting company that was honored by the PBN in 1997 as Rhode Island’s Fastest Growing Company. QRI is a member of the Staff Service Group, a $3 billion global company based in Japan that has clients in North America, Asia and Europe. www.qristaffing.com.