After taking a controlling interest in two Hamilton Bradshaw companies, the chief executive of financial services and banking recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider Matt Burton Associates (MBA) has told Recruiter about his growth plans.  

CEO Matt Burton says the deals that give MBA a controlling interest in retail executive recruiter Exsurgo and niche retail RPO HB Resourcing were concluded in the last two weeks. Burton won’t disclose any financial details except to say they were “multi-million pound” deals. 

Recruiter asked Hamilton Bradshaw, founded by entrepreneur James Caan, for a comment, but the company did not respond by press deadline. 

MBA recently received investment from Invest|R, which is also part of the Hamilton Bradshaw group of companies. According to a corporate finance expert, who specialises in the recruitment sector, this makes the deals “unusual”, although he goes on to add: “There are not many people with different stables of recruiters in the same way that Hamilton Bradshaw has. It is not normal but there aren’t many companies like HB around.

“It will be HB internal shuffling things around, I am sure. It is just internal moving around of shares within the HB Group and Invest|R. It is not really an exit, it is just a moving of the deckchairs.”

Following the deals, Burton says he plans to double the size of London-based Exsurgo, which currently employs 27 staff, within the next 18 months. He also plans to relaunch HB Resourcing so it becomes “effectively a new division of MBA”.

Burton explains that the structure of the new group will provide “real opportunities to leverage off some [of Exsurgo’s] great clients to put forward an RPO proposition [HB resourcing] beyond our current sector”.

Burton says “the main motivation” behind the deal with Exsurgo was that “it had the same ethos as MBA”, which is “a real partnering mentality with clients”. 

The new MBA group structure ties in with Burton’s aim of creating a portfolio of recruiting businesses that “all operate in a similar fashion”. But in addition, by diversifying into retail, it gives the group more resilience, he explains. 

Burton adds: “I expect it [HB Resourcing] to be a similar size as MBA – growing it to become a £1.5m to £2m EBITDA [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] business within 18 to 24 months.’’ 

Burton says that MBA currently employs 30 staff, and also that the company had recently received financial backing from InvestIR Group. 

Burton says that as far as staff at Exsurgo and HB Resourcing, it is “business as usual”, with all existing staff keeping their jobs. “The owners will remain on the operating boards of their respective companies. The only change is that I will take on the chief executive role at both businesses, as well as at MBA.”

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