A veteran UK recruiter is set to launch a branch in Johannesburg, South Africa, next week.

Joy Nichols, CEO of London-based Nichols Employment Agency, who recently won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for her services to promoting business in her community, has been in recruitment for 25 years.

Nichols plans to take the business model she has built up at her generalist recruitment firm in London, which comprises a combination of training, recruitment and consultancy, and replicate it in Johannesburg.

In South Africa, her client base will be a mixture of public and private sector firms, she said.

Nichols focuses much of her training and recruitment work on local communities near the firm’s four London branches. She hopes to form similar partnerships with small businesses and individuals in South Africa.

“Along the way I have had to overcome three main obstacles – I’m a woman, I run a small business and I come from an ethnic minority,” Nichols told Recruiter.

“I hope I can show people what I’ve done with all the barriers in this country and the barriers won’t be too dissimilar in South Africa.”

Nichols has been researching the country for the past two years and believes that it is an emerging market for recruiters.