Member Article

Specialist financial recruitment consultancy sees 44% rise in revenue

Woodrow Mercer Finance, the Leeds-headquartered financial search and selection consultancy which also has an office in Birmingham, is performing strongly with revenue continuing to show significant growth in the last financial year as the firm plans further expansion.

The business saw revenues rise to £2.6m in the year ending 31st March 2019, an increase of over 44% year-on-year.

Woodrow Mercer Finance was formed in 2016 when long-established Leeds financial consultancy FDYL formed a joint venture with Birmingham-based recruiter Woodrow Mercer. The plan was to expand its financial recruitment offering nationally under the Woodrow Mercer Finance brand.

Managing partner James Roach comments: “Over the last 30 years, we’ve been advising businesses from our experience as strategic finance directors, which usually involved sourcing finance staff somewhere down the line. With traditional recruitment agencies relying increasingly on a numbers-driven business model, we knew this would produce opportunities with those who favoured a relationship focussed approach, and one led by expertise rather than chance.

“Three years on, we have expanded to three offices carrying the Woodrow Mercer Finance brand with a qualified finance director running each business. This unique model has also allowed us to attract high calibre recruiters who have also built their reputations on long term relationships and advice. We’re now able to offer our clients an experienced financial recruiter at every level; from ledger clerks to CFOs, both permanent and interim. In fact, our transactional division is flying, having placed over 30 people in January alone.”

As well as offices in Leeds and Birmingham, the business has this year established a base in Hull with plans to expand into the North West imminently.

Over the last 12 months, Woodrow Mercer Finance has recruited a further seven consultants, including two partners and two associate directors, as the business continues to grow and plan for succession. It now has a 20-strong team and anticipates a further four hires in the coming months.

Mr Roach continues: “Looking to the future, we expect our main challenge to be finding the right high calibre consultants who fit with our ethos to join the team as we continue to grow. Having built the business on our reputation as a specialist finance consultancy run by active FDs, ensuring that we have talented, experienced professionals working alongside our clients, remains a priority on which we will not compromise.”

Woodrow Mercer Finance offers a full range of specialist financial consultancy and recruitment services from the search and selection of portfolio finance directors and financial controllers to full-time interims and permanent FDs and FCs. The firm also has a division providing entry level and part/newly qualified staff.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Emma Kilmurray .