Specialist recruiter to grow own ranks

A recruitment firm specialising in finance and accountancy is looking to grow headcount by about a third this year after a run of client wins in the first quarter and record revenues in 2017.

Left to right: George Elliott, Kirsty Mackenzie and John Anderson. Picture: Stewart Attwood.

Income reached £1.4 million last year for iMultiply, which has offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast, while new additions to its client roster also included iMetafilm, a Glasgow-based company that digitises old film footage, as well as Blackwood Housing Association.

The business, which was founded by Kirsty Mackenzie, said growing revenue streams include the social enterprise sector, interim appointments and the launch of an Agile FD service, which matches emerging companies with financial directors to add “significant value” to the firm without the “pain” of a permanent salary.

In 2017, the recruiter, whose existing client base includes online tyre retailer Blackcircles.com and data specialist deltaDNA, acquired Glasgow-based Allen Accountancy Recruitment and opened an office in Belfast to target the Northern Irish market and act as a bridgehead into Dublin.

Recruitment veteran and Par Equity co-founder Paul Atkinson is an early investor, while John Anderson, former boss of what is now Entrepreneurial Scotland, was appointed chairman in June. Technology sector stalwart George Elliott joined the advisory board last year.

The business is also running an event – Artificial Intelligence, the Business Reality – at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics on 3 May. This features keynote speakers Melinda Matthews Clarkson, chief executive of digital skills academy CodeClan, incoming FinTech Scotland head Stephen Ingledew, and Colin Hewitt, chief executive and founder of cash-management start-up Float.

Mackenzie said: “As artificial intelligence continues to come to the fore across Scotland’s technology and business scene, it’s something we are increasingly examining with clients. Edinburgh and Scotland are world-renowned when it comes to AI research and applications, and we’re excited to be bringing some of the key industry players together to further examine the subject at the Informatics Forum next month.”

Additionally, iMultiply has increased the reach of its customer satisfaction survey, which ultimately determines bonus levels for the firm’s recruitment consultants.

Mackenzie said: “When I founded iMultiply six years ago, from the very beginning I wanted to do things differently as I felt the recruitment industry needed to change.” She added that the survey is “the bedrock on which the company has been built”.

Separately, oil and gas recruitment consultancy Ably Resources has secured a $1.1m (£788,000) contract for a joint-venture geothermal drilling project in the Netherlands that will see geothermal energy used to heat buildings and commercial greenhouses. It has hired the drilling, operations and rig-management staff that will run the project.

The Glasgow-based firm is set to achieve turnover of £8m for 2018, after a management buyout in 2016 by MD Mark Lombardi and his two co-directors Ami Wright and Nadim Shema.