Recruiter Russell Taylor Group secures £5m funding deal

Specialist technical recruiter Russell Taylor Group has been boosted by a £5m funding deal to deliver the next stage of its growth.

The deal for the Wirral-headquartered company was brokered by Cowgills business finance team with Investec Capital Solutions.

Founded in 2005, the group owns four businesses; Russell Taylor Group, Recruit Right, NMS Recruit and Perpetual Engineering Partnerships, providing technical temporary and permanent recruitment to the construction, engineering, manufacturing, oil, gas and energy sectors.

Today, the business employs around 120 staff operating out of seven strategically located offices across the UK and has a combined turnover of £35m.

Having sold two further businesses in 2020, the group’s working capital requirement was reduced from a highly complex £25m facility to £5m and Cowgills specialist team was instructed to identify new funding options with a range of lenders.

CEO Ben Russell said: “Having gone through numerous MBOs and acquisitions we needed to put in place a new funding arrangement to deliver the next stage of our business ambitions.

“It was important to us to build a relationship with a funder that could provide a high level of personal service and we tasked Cowgills to identify a new partner and manage the tender process.

“We ultimately selected Investec who demonstrated that they had both the strength and flexibility to support us as our business grows.

“At the size we are, we could have gone to a high street bank, but Investec is very much relationship-led which was a key deciding factor for us.

“Their service is driven by the people that make the decisions and they take the time to talk and listen which is really important.” 

Ben continued: “Recruitment businesses are working capital intensive since clients are on 45 and 60 day terms but you’re having to pay out temporary workers weekly.

“So, unless you have very, very deep pockets, having a working capital facility in place is a must. Investec tailored a £5m facility for us, offering a higher prepayment percentage than we have had historically, enabling us to focus on driving rapid growth.”

Investec’s Sean Thomson said: “We recognise that as an experienced in-sector entrepreneur we were backing Ben, and not just his business.

“Having worked with Cowgills over the years, their input has been invaluable as always, and in this particular case allowed us to develop a relationship with a dynamic and exciting group, where we see a long-standing future partnership.” 

Benjamin Day, director at Cowgills added: “We were very impressed at how quickly Investec turned around this transaction in a competitive situation. They understood the business very well and delivered every step of the way.”