Edinburgh recruitment group grows turnover

An Edinburgh-based recruitment group formed by serial investor Paul Atkinson has upped annual turnover and said it is in talks with various acquisition targets.

Paul Atkinson said the group is in talks with various potential acquisition targets. Picture: submitted.

Taranata Group was formed in 2017 to create a recruitment “supergroup”. It comprises Head Resourcing, Head Medical and Atkinson Macleod Executive Search, with Change Recruitment acquired in May last year.

The group achieved turnover of £62 million for 2017, compared to a combined turnover (for the three group companies operating in the previous year) of £44.6m for 2016.

“This represents an uplift of approximately 39 per cent, achieved in part by the acquisition of Change Recruitment… but also through increased activity across all group businesses,” Taranata said. At the time of inception, combined group turnover was an estimated £60m.

Gross profit grew by about two-thirds to £8.5m, and staff numbers (currently 150) were up by a tenth over the year.

Chief operating officer Callum Lyle said: “Every one of our businesses has performed beyond expectation. Over a year of transformation, our leadership team retained their focus and delivered healthy growth for their businesses – particularly at Head Medical and Head Resourcing, which accounts for the largest share of the uplift.”

He added that buying Change helped realise the ambition to unite all of its recruitment interests to create “an overarching group that would drive further growth of the combined assets”.

Atkinson said the group is well-positioned to progress its target of £100m turnover by 2020 in part via acquisition. “We are currently in discussion with a number of potential acquisition targets and have plans to launch new service lines of our own.

“We are currently in discussion with a number of potential acquisition targets and have plans to launch new service lines of our own. In all of this, our motivation is to outperform the expectations of our clients, staff and partners, both current and future.

“Those expectations are changing, particularly driven by the development of robotics and AI and their ability to offer insight to the recruitment process. In response, Taranata Group will adapt and innovate as an intrinsic part of its growth strategy.”