ASSIST RECRUITMENT MERGES WITH HC RECRUITMENT TO CREATE TOP 10 INDUSTRIAL RECRUITER IN THE UK

ASSIST RECRUITMENT MERGES WITH HC RECRUITMENT TO CREATE TOP 10 INDUSTRIAL RECRUITER IN THE UK

Liverpool-based commercial and industrial recruitment business Assist Recruitment (Assist) has completed a merger with HC Recruitment (HC) that will see the company become one of the largest industrial recruiters in the UK.

The combined business will have a turnover in excess of £45M per annum and provides up to 6,000 temporary workers from 16 branches and 20 embedded customer locations from Scotland to London and the South East. Both businesses will trade under the Assist Recruitment brand and will offer customers an enhanced service in terms of national coverage, innovative and cost-effective service solutions to the planned AWR legislation in October this year.

Assist and HC both provide temporary staff to blue and white collar sectors and work with some of the UK’s most recognised brand names including Morrisons Supermarkets, JD Sports, Next Directory, Music Magpie, Greggs the Bakers and Findel Education.

Dave Dargan, Managing Director of Assist explained: “This is a fantastic step forward for our company. Our combined business is now one of the largest industrial recruiters in the UK which presents some exciting opportunities for our customers and staff. We have always prided ourselves on being different from our competitors which is a value shared by the team at HC which will help us continue to provide our customers with unique, cost-effective and compliant solutions for their staffing needs.”

Matt Cullen, Managing Director at HC, added: “Joining forces with Assist is another example of our commitment to continually improving our business and providing a unique service offering to our customers. Our combined experience, innovative IT platform and ability to support our customers nationally, will provide some great opportunities for us to develop new and existing relationships with our customers.”

The deal was orchestrated by Cowgill Holloway’s corporate finance team who identified the opportunity to merge the two businesses and structured and project managed the transaction. 

Ian Johnson, the Partner who led the transaction, commented: “This is an excellent deal for two companies which share some remarkable synergies. Both are exceptionally well-managed, operate in identical areas and possess a common vision to grow and develop into a leading UK player.”

Assist received legal advice from David Easdown and Nicky Collins at George Davies Solicitors who have previously advised on several transactions for the Assist team. 

HC received corporate finance advice from Mark Worsley and Ian Smethurst of CLB Cooper and Greg Sher and Nick Ducker of SNG Legal provided their legal advice.

RBS Invoice Finance has provided a £9million invoice discounting line to fund the merger and provide further cash injection for the on-going working capital requirements, most notably to support the seasonal trading peaks around the Christmas period.