Member Article

Coleman James building on early success

A SPECIALIST recruitment company has expanded into new premises after three years of massive growth – and aims to hit turnover of £10m within a further three years.

Coleman James, experts in recruitment for construction and the built environment, was founded in June 2016 by Managing Director Andrew Mackay and recently moved into new 2,000 sq ft offices in Hoults Yard, Byker, to accommodate its growing team.

Growth has been remarkable – turnover for 2016-17 was £218,000; for 2017-18 it was £621,000 and for the current year is forecast to be up by 320 per cent to £2m.

The company provides leading recruitment services in areas including construction, building services, housing, facilities management, architecture and interior design.

“Our success is down to our people and our relationships with our valued clients. The average age of our team is 35 – we have experienced, committed and talented individuals some of whom have been recruited from national and multi-national companies. They know their area of the business inside out and get to know their clients’ businesses well.

“We’ve been fortunate to recruit senior figures from the industry who’ve bought into our culture, values and strategy to offer a highly-knowledgable service – with a difference.

“We needed more space for our team to grow and Hoults Yard was a perfect fit for us. It’s a cool, vibrant and energetic place, close enough to the city centre, but without the constraints of city centre parking and rates,” said Andrew.

“It’s also a great place for attracting new members of staff – there’s a good café and some great gyms, which are being used by some of team who do Pilates,” he added.

Charlie Hoult, owner of the Yard, said: “I’ve been impressed by Coleman James and love their relaxed, friendly, customer-centric way of working. They’ve created a fantastic new office and environment for their team and it’s great to see space on the Yard used so creatively.”

Andrew is clear about the company’s direction of travel: “There’s real demand for our services and market intelligence, and we have ambitious plans for growth. It’s set to be a positive year as we look to double our workforce and deliver a national service from our base in the North.

“Specifically, we aim to have a headcount of 30 and a turnover of £10m within three years. Over the past two and a half years we have invoiced almost 100 clients across our range of eight sectors. Our success has been equally distributed across the sectors, which is a good sign for growth too.”

Andrew was born and bred on Tyneside, attended Dame Allan’s School, and entered the recruitment industry working for Hill McGlynn, which became Randstad, and Anderselite. He went on to work at Manager and Director level at national and global recruitment firms before founding Coleman James in 2016.

The company’s name comes from the surname of his beloved grandmother and his middle name.

“The name is becoming more recognised and respected and our aim is to outshine our competitors. But whatever we do, the firm is underpinned by strong core values – integrity, knowledge, relationships and excellence,” said Andrew.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hoults Yard .