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COLIN COTTELL MEETS MARTIN TUCKER AND MARK TURNER, JOINT MANAGING PARTNERS OF THE LEADING RECRUITER IN THIS YEAR'S FAST 50, SPONSORED BY HITACHI CAPITAL INVOICE FINANCE
In the recent years of public sector austerity, spending across large swathes of central and local government has been tightly squeezed. So at first glance it is remarkable that the fastest-growing private staffing company in the 2015 Recruiter FAST 50, compiled by Boxington Corporate Finance, is a public sector specialist. What is more remarkable still is that this company is the sole 'pure' public sector recruiter in the entire table.
Yet this comes as no surprise to Martin Tucker, joint managing partner of the 95-strong executive search anc^ interim management provider GatenbySanderson. "Austerity has actually been a driver of growth for us," says Tucker, as he and fellow joint managing partner Mark Turner meet to discuss the company's achievement with Recruiter at the its offices in the Gty of London.
If public sector austerity and the success of a niche recruitment company serving that sector appears at first to be a contradiction in terms, Tucker soon squares the circle as he explains how pressure on budgets is forcing the public sector to change, and how this in turn is fuelling demand for "excellent leadership that is not necessarily in good supply". These factors have helped propel the public sector specialist to top place in this year's FAST 50 table, with a compound annual growth rate of 69.09% between 2011 and 2013.
Even the prospect of chancellor George Osborne's plans to cuts public spending to 35% of gross domestic product (GDP) should the Conservatives win May's general election seemingly holds no horrors for Tucker. "It's great to be the fastest-growing company in the industry, but the real journey starts now with our next phase of growth," he says. Indeed, on the back of a recent management buy-out (MBO), the company has ambitious plans to become a 150-strong firm within three years.
The public sector's transformation agenda has undoubtedly boosted the company's fortunes by fuelling demand for "the top three strands" of public sector personnel that GatenbySanderson specialises in providing. But the two joint managing partners say that the accolade of becoming the UK's fastest-growing private recruiter would not...