Recruitment firm Genesis set for new beginning after serious fire

A Coventry recruitment business has recovered from an office fire which forced it to relocate premises to post its best ever year.

Genesis Employment Services, which is run by husband and wife team Gaynor and Richard Frost, is expecting sales to reach £6.5m in 2017 – a £1.4m rise on the previous twelve months.

The firm’s growth has come from its partnerships with clients in the automotive, engineering and food sectors; with a series of new contracts secured following spikes in demand.

Wins include a deal to supply local manufacturer Pressmark Pressings, while it has also signed an exclusive two-year agreement with fruit wholesaler Fyffes to supply hundreds of staff every week.

The company was forced out of its offices in Hay Lane earlier this year when a fire in a restaurant beneath the premises badly damaged the building.

Mrs Frost, who has a 30-year career in the recruitment industry, said: “Safe to say it wasn’t a great start to the year having a fire in the restaurant underneath us causing significant damage to our offices, but sometimes you just have to deal with what’s in front of you and come back stronger.

“That’s exactly what we did. We kept the business open and started to look at alternative premises and were delighted to find we could take the office above us, which is about 600 sq ft bigger than we had previously.”

In some ways the fire did the firm a favour as a growth in the business had prompted the need for additional space.

“Our recent contract wins mean we need to expand the team and we now have the space we need to take on another five consultants. The offices also have dedicated meeting and conference room facilities, as well as a brilliant city centre location making us easy to reach,” added Mrs Frost.

The firm has a long association with Coventry City Football Club, including being a former shirt sponsor, and invited manager Mark Robins to come and open the new offices.

The firm, founded in 2006, has grown year-on-year and today regularly supplies 500 temporary staff to clients in engineering, food manufacturing, warehousing and across professional services. It has also sourced permanent staff if required.

It is now embarking on a recruitment drive of its own and is looking to take on an additional five members of staff over the next three months. This will take the total workforce to 16.