Skill shortages, and the transferable skills of key workers, supporting diversification into international markets, were important factors in the growth of many of this year’s Fast 50 companies. accounts of privately owned UK recruitment businesses, carried out by Catalyst Corporate Finance, found that IT, engineering, including oil & gas were the particular beneficiaries, with more than half (58%) of the Fast 50 serving these markets.

Bolstered by their performance, this year’s Fast 50 companies enjoyed an average growth in sales of 46%. This compares with an average growth in sales of 52% in the previous year.

International multi-sector recruiter FiveTen Group topped this year’s ranking, with sales in the company’s 2008 reporting year growing by 196.8%.
Mark Kingston, one of the authors of the Fast 50, said the company “is starting to see seeing the results of its acquisitions over the last few years”.
Kingston said the strong performance of IT recruiters can be explained by “the highly transferable skills of candidates”.

Aston Carter is a good example of a recruiter that has benefited from being able to transfer candidates between countries, he says. Other IT recruiters in the Fast 50 are Templeton Recruitment and IT Skillfinder.

Tim Evans, co-author of the Fast 50, said the strong representation of engineering recruiters, particularly oil & gas, can be attributed to both “a global shortage of skilled personnel, and the need for mission critical contractors”. Fast 50 recruiters from this sector include Arion Recruitment, Mentor IMC Group and Petrolic Consultants.

The growth of many Fast 50 companies was boosted by their diversification overseas, where they were able to benefit from stronger markets than those in the UK, Europe and the US.
Those businesses with exposure to the China and South-East Asia markets in particular, such as oil & and gas recruiter Mentor IMC Group and Aston Carter (IT) “have been cushioned from the worst of the downturn”, said Kingston.

Mark Swain, managing director of technical recruiter Fusion People, said the company benefited by supplying qualified technical & engineering professionals from the UK and Australia into the Middle East, particularly Qatar, Oman and Abu Dhabi.

Almost 60% (29) of this year’s Fast 50 are newcomers, reflecting the dynamism of the recruitment industry and the difficulty that larger recruiters have in sustaining high levels of growth.

Despite the bias towards smaller recruiters, six recruiters in this year’s Fast 50 generated more than £50m in revenue. They are FiveTen Group, Aston Carter, Orion, Michael Bailey, LA International, Red commerce and Venn Group.