Recruiters snap up Northern rivals
ROTHERHAM’S Nicholas Associates Group has bought up a Newcastle-based firm for an undisclosed sum.
Nicholas Associates is part of Stafforce Personnel, both under the leadership of chief executive Lisa Gainsford. Ms Gainsford has been in position less than a week.
Her role was made permanent this month after 8 months as interim chief executive.
XL Graduate Placement, as you may expect, provides temporary and permanent recruitment services, and the acquisition is part of an aggressive growth strategy for the group.
XL has seen “incredible” growth since its founding in 2011 according to Stafforce, and the vendors will stay on as consultants alongside Vicki Nee, the new internal group head of apprentice and graduate placement.
Apprentice Employment Agency is also under the Stafforce umbrella, and both it and Nicholas Associates provide complementary services to Stafforce.
Nicholas Associates Group chief executive, Lisa Gainsford said: “We are very excited about XL joining our Group and it demonstrates our commitment to empowering young people and supporting their career journey from the start.
“It fits perfectly with our Apprentice Employment Agency and our software business, which, through its All Together platform enables almost 50% of the UK’s 16-18 year olds to access work experience placements as well as supporting a number universities in managing student work placements.”
The vendors of XL Graduate Placement said: “Joining Nicholas Associates will quite simply turbocharge XL’s growth plans. The additional opportunities that this will provide to our 23,000 graduate stakeholders is immensely exciting for them and for the XL team.
“The benefits to graduates of a paid work placement in the field in which they want to build their career are abundantly clear; we will now have the scale, reach and resources to help thousands more graduates take the crucial first step on the career ladder.”
Corporate partner Paul Mann and associate Mae Salem from Squire Patton Boggs in Leeds advised Nicholas Associates. Mr Mann said: “We are delighted to have completed our first acquisition for Nicholas Associates. The management has ambitious plans to grow through further acquisitions and we look forward to supporting them to continue their growth and success.”
Matt Ainsworth and Michael Hall at Irwin Mitchell and Jonathan Parkinson at Benchmark Corporate advised XL Graduate Placement
