Sale of Permanent and Temporary Staff Recruitment Agency
The Company
An independent recruitment consultancy specialising in administrative staff, catering and warehouse personnel. The company managed permanent, as well as temporary placements; the latter accounting for approximately two thirds of the business.
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The Situation
Based in South East England the company had been established for 36 years and had a large number of regular, long-standing local clients including a number of ‘Blue-Chip’ companies one of which was a major investment finance company to whom the agency was its preferred supplier.
Three of the four permanent employees had worked for the company for between 12 and 32 years and as a result, possessed a solid knowledge of the area and client base.
The owner was in his eighties and had moved to South West England a number of years ago. They were keen to sell at this time due to ill-health.
What Hornblower Did
The acquisition of the business represented an outstanding opportunity for an existing recruitment consultancy to expand into different sectors, or an entrepreneur looking to expand the business into middle management in existing sectors.
Hornblower have a strong database of trade buyers and investors who are very interested in acquiring recruitment businesses. However as with all sale mandates we take a researched approach to finding strategic buyers for the company in question. In this case, we researched and approached over 200 companies whom we had qualified as being in a position to acquire a business of this size and type.
We took the business to market in July 2015 and, having handled over 40 enquiries for the business and received 3 offers, agreed heads of terms by January 2016 – within just 6 months. We completed the deal the following month.
Due to the age and location of the owners, we took a particularly active role in the negotiations and sale process.
The Win-Win result
The final buyer was a specialist recruitment company based in the Midlands. The business was looking to expand its geographical footprint, specifically within the South East. Its profile of clients and staff on its books was also an excellent fit for the buyer.
The vendor was able to fully retire straight away on completion of the sale, and the general manager, who also wished to retire, was able to do so after a short handover period.
We wish them every success in the future.
SOLD – February 2016