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Acquisition takes Acorn to £65m
Yvon Drouet, Director, Synergie; Matt Southall, Managing Director, Acorn
Jason Canny, Managing Director, Advance Personnel
Leading Welsh recruitment and training company Acorn today announces the acquisition of Advance Personnel Ltd, one of the leading recruitment providers in the North West of England.
Based in Crewe, Cheshire, and Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and with an office in Gdansk, Poland, Advance Personnel reported revenues of more than £18m in the last financial year.
The business, which was founded by Managing Director Jason Canny, will continue to operate under its own name.
The acquisition is in line with Acorn’s stated intention of increasing annual turnover to circa £100m by the end of 2008. In 2006 Acorn reported turnover of £41.5m, a 15.4% increase on the previous year, and has recently opened new branches in Gloucestershire, Devon, Flint and Preston.
The acquisition will see Acorn’s direct workforce increase to approximately 260 and takes its turnover to £65m for 2007. With its Head Office in Newport, South Wales, Acorn is the UK partner of Synergie of France, one of Europe’s and North America’s leading recruitment companies with annual turnover of over €1 billion.
Advance Personnel specialises in the provision of temporary and permanent blue collar staff via managed ‘on-site’ business teams and traditional high street locations. It provides staff to sectors including industrial, contract packing, food and drink, driving and construction / trades sectors.
It has been at the forefront of the introduction of EU labour into the UK, gaining industry recognition and awards for its rigorous support provided to its workforce, and it is fully audited by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation and has passed the Gangmaster Licensing Authority audit process.
Matt Southall, founder and Managing Director of Acorn, said, “Advance Personnel is a superb fit for the Acorn group, both geographically and in the sectors it services.
“The team at Advance has developed an excellent reputation for quality of its service delivery and they will play a significant role in Acorn’s continuing development plan.”
Jason Canny said, “The UK continues to experience a highly-publicised skills shortage in many sectors. Advance’s labour pool stretches across Europe eradicating any skills shortage when recruiting professionals for any sector.
“Becoming part of the Acorn group will help provide us with an increase in resource and coupled with their considerable experience, will allow us to grow our activity considerably in the years ahead.
“This is a terrific development that will benefit the customers of Acorn, Advance and Synergie.”
Further information about Advance Personnel is available at www.advancepersonnel.co.uk.
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