The Edinburgh-based Taranata Group, a clutch of recruitment firms brought together by entrepreneur and investor Paul Atkinson in 2017  reported its first set of figures since undertaking structuring and branding initiatives.

The Taranata Group comprises Head Resourcing, Head Medical, Change Recruitment and Atkinson Macleod Executive Search. 

The group reported turnover of £62 million for the year 2017, compared to a combined turnover (for the three group companies operating in the previous year) of £44.6 million for 2016.  This represents an increase of 39.0%, achieved in part by the acquisition of Change Recruitment in May 2017, but also through increased activity across all group businesses.

Gross profit during the same period increased by a greater margin, with an uplift of 67%, from £5.1 million to £8.5 million. The group said this can be attributed to the quality of staff and more effective working across the company, resulting in greater profits.  Additionally, Taranata said releasing Change Recruitment from legacy high infrastructure costs allowed a return to profit immediately post-acquisition.

Callum Lyle, Chief Operating Officer of Taranata Group commented: “Every one of our businesses has performed beyond expectation.  Over a year of transformation, our leadership team retained their focus and delivered healthy growth for their businesses – particularly at Head Medical and Head Resourcing, which accounts for the largest share of the uplift.”

“The acquisition of Change Recruitment this year was the catalyst for the realisation of a long-held ambition, namely to bring all our recruitment interests together and form an overarching group that would drive further growth of the combined assets,” Lyle said.

In the last year, the group’s businesses have launched new service lines, sector offerings and expanded into new geographic locations. 

Head Resourcing opened a new Manchester office to capitalise on a thriving market in the north-west of England, and it brought to market Head Contractor Solutions, a new service for pre-engagement vetting, on-boarding and consultancy services.  Meanwhile, Change Recruitment launched a construction division and Head Medical won several new commissions, most recently securing a contract to provide overseas GPs to NHS England.

Group Executive Chairman Paul Atkinson commented, “After almost a year of structuring and ‘whitespace’ review, we are now well placed to drive forward our ambition of £100 million turnover by 2020 through a mix of acquisition, growth and innovation.”

“We are currently in discussion with a number of potential acquisition targets and have plans to launch new service lines of our own.  In all of this, our motivation is to outperform the expectations of our clients, staff and partners, both current and future.  Those expectations are changing, particularly driven by the development of robotics and AI and their ability to offer insight to the recruitment process.  In response, Taranata Group will adapt and innovate as an intrinsic part of its growth strategy.”

The group also reported that staff numbers (currently 150) have grown by 10% over the year.

Atkinson continued, “Many clients increased their hiring requirements over the year, partly due to additional regulatory burdens.  This, coupled with a shortage of skills in many sectors, such as IT and Business Change, has seen us take new approaches as we seek the perfect candidates for our clients.  We have also met demand by offering bespoke onboarding and pre-employment screening services.  It is these challenges and the way we respond to them that will drive the growth of our business over the coming years.”

Atkinson, who began his career in recruitment working for Computer People (now part of Adecco) when it opened its first Scottish office in Edinburgh in the late 1980s, told The Scotsman in July that Taranta is currently studying a potential public listing.