Hospitality recruiters Lister Charles Recruitment and West One Hotel & Catering Consultancy have merged following six months of dialogue between the two businesses.

Both companies will now operate in a group structure within a holding company called Angel Partners.

However, the Lister Charles and West One identities will be retained, with each company continuing to operate as separate subsidiaries reporting to the group.

Nicholas Charles, Mark Sykes and Julian East will make up the management board of Angel Partners.

“The synergy between the two companies was immediately apparent, and this, combined with the fact that there was little overlap in the sectors in which both businesses operated, made this a deal that we quite simply had to do,” said group managing director Mark Sykes (pictured).