Record-breaking year forecast for Russell Taylor Group
Posted by Catherine Tidy on 15/11/2022
RUSSELL Taylor Group are set for a record-breaking year as the business reaches another major trading milestone.
A predicted £30 million turnover co-incides with the company this month celebrating 17 years of non-stop growth.
During this time, the business, originally set up as a family concern with just three people, has become one of the UK’s biggest technical recruiters operating on a national platform from centres also based in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Scotland.
In the past year alone, Russell Taylor Group has driven its 2021 turnover figure of £23.5 million to the expected £30 million for 2022.
And to support client demand in its core operational sectors of construction, scientific, energy, engineering and manufacturing, 23 new members of staff have been taken on in recruitment roles and in the back office teams of accounts, admin and IT, taking the total workforce to 70.
Managing director Rob Kurton said: “While many were bracing themselves for a recession, Russell Taylor Group became an integral part of a post-pandemic move to rebuild Britain’s infrastructure.
“Our construction, engineering and energy sectors have been particularly buoyant this year as have our newer recruiting sectors of manufacturing and scientific.
“The Manufacturing Division has experienced an increased need for labour to supply fast-moving consumer goods and to service the hospitality industry bounce-back while Scientific is recruiting experts with specialist skills to respond to some of the country’s most urgent health, welfare and lifestyle challenges.
“Added to this has been the expansion of our centres in London and Scotland. The scale of infrastructure investment in London is higher than in any other part of the country, creating a demand for construction and mechanical and engineering trades workers, whereas Scotland is currently seeing a massive boom in school building and refurbishment, student accommodation, hotels, leisure and sports facilities.
“All these projects continually need a fit-for-purpose workforce with the right expertise – from skilled trades through to senior management and executive level - to grow the regional and UK economy.”
Russell Taylor Group was originally set up from a spare room at home by chief executive Ben Russell, his wife Claire and father Peter Russell, now company chairman, and has Wirral-based recruiting subsidiaries of Recruit Right and NMS Recruit along with Perpetual Partnerships, based in Knutsford.
To train, develop and up-skill its recruitment teams - from apprentices just joining the business to existing staff on a route to senior management roles – the business this year set up its own Training Academy.
Peter Russell explained: “A workplace strategy of training and developing our own home-grown talent to become the white-collar workforce of the future has been at the forefront of our operations since business start-up 17 years ago. In this period, we’ve supported more than 50 apprentices, many of whom have stayed with us to become key players and senior managers.
“However, the new Training Academy has taken our focus to the next level as we plan another ambitious expansion pathway for the business. By further investing in talent and training, we recognise that our people are our most important asset. They belong to the future of our business - as we continue to grow so do they.
“And for employers working with us to recruit labour, it means we can open up greater doors of opportunity to provide them with the right workforce with the right skills to make their businesses flourish.”
Rob Kurton added: “Having an expertly-trained team of recruiters has never been more important than now.
“As a business, we have come through a challenging couple of years in all our operational sectors and forecasts for this year and onwards are looking good.
“However, we have a situation nationally where skilled job-seekers are in charge of the labour market and likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. The Training Academy will now see our recruiters uniquely placed to make successful inroads into plugging some of these skills gaps as we all work to rebuild the UK economy.”