Founder of Top Gear Recruitment returns to streamline the business

The co-founder of manufacturing, distribution and logistics sectors recruiter Top Gear Recruitment, who bought back the business after it went into administration in October, has taken steps to streamline the business.
Thu, 29 Nov 2012
The co-founder of manufacturing, distribution and logistics sectors recruiter Top Gear Recruitment, who bought back the business after it went into administration in October, has taken steps to streamline the business.  

Danny Steel, who originally co-founded the £22m a year turnover business with Richard Burford in 1999, bought it back from administrators RPG for an undisclosed sum at the end of October, after the company got into financial difficulties.Steel left the business in 2007 to set up software development business Rocket Software in 2007, though he retained a 50% share in the company with managing director Burford, who has now left the company.

Steel says his plans to return the company to health revolve around the creation of a central hub office in Manchester, and the closure of branch offices in Warrington, Wigan, Wakefield, Stoke and Peterlee near Sunderland. Staff previously working in these branches are now being relocated to clients’ sites, thus reducing overheads, he says.

And in another cost reduction measure, Steel says he has replaced “heavy top-end management” with “more productive ground workers”. Taken together, Steel says these measures can cut overheads by 20%, though he adds that the number of staff remains around the same at 40.  
 
“If all these things are achieved the business is sustainable,” says Steel.

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