The fever pitch of acquisition activity earlier in the year at recruitment group Imprint has slowed significantly in 2005’s last quarter, London recruiters were told last week.

Imprint chief operating officer John Hunter (pictured) said he spent “120%” of his time working on acquisitions earlier this year, when the group acquired ECHM, Morgan McKinley and, most recently, Accreate.

Now Hunter, who makes up half of the group’s mergers and acquisitions team, only spends 10% of his time doing so, he said in a talk to the Recruitment Society.

Imprint is keeping observers guessing as to whether more acquisitions are on the horizon, but Hunter said such a move “depends on what we find. We’ll do a deal if we can find one”.

Hunter’s theme was achieving rapid growth in an uncertain market, which Imprint has accomplished despite a shaky start in the tumultuous days of 2001. Today,

an increasingly candidate-driven market raises significant questions for the recruitment industry.

For example, Hunter asked, will the current procurement model favoured by investment banks hold in a market in which demand for qualified candidates has increased, but fewer are qualifying than in years past?

Investment banks now set the pace for recruitment on a global scale with their procurement model: working with small preferred supplier lists, the banks, as “one of the most active employer groups”, have driven down recruiters’ fee rates in return for volume work, Hunter said.

Investment banks tend to work with the same suppliers around

the world, while commercial and professional companies tend to have different agreements with a differing roster of players at various locations. Imprint’s own modus operandi is clearly being aligned with the investment bank model.

Core to the group’s operations is a philosophy of what chief executive Brian Hamill calls “deepening” relations with fewer clients as opposed to seeking to significantly boost the client roster.

Even in a candidate-driven market, the investment banks’ model will likely survive, Hunter predicted, “but you’ll see a bit of recovery in the rates as long as this market continues”.