Bury recruiter secures £17 million facility

Lancashire’s Assist, a recruiter in the industrial, logistics and construction sectors, has secured a £17 million facility with Lloyds Banking Group to support its future growth.

The business has continued its strong performance achieving 40% turnover growth in 2013/14 following the acquisition of Top Gear Recruitment and is on target to deliver revenue of £80 million for 2014/15.

Assist is now targeting revenue of £150 million by 2017/18 by continuing to invest in its current markets and achieving some strategic diversification into areas of specialised resourcing.

Dave Dargan, founder of the Group commented “We have seen some fantastic performance over the past two years and have been joined by some very talented people that have helped us achieve this.

“The recent refinancing with Lloyds will support us in the next phase of our journey. We have some challenging targets to reach our £150 million milestone but if you look at the track record of the business we have been achieving some great things.”

Kevin Chute, managing director added “We are building extremely valuable solutions for our clients. We have some great people with the ideas and commitment to make a real difference in our industry.

“We’ve added some great technology that’s helping us break new ground enabling us to build strong sustainable relationships with our customers.”

John Csizmadia, relationship director for Lloyds Commercial Banking, said: “The temporary recruitment sector in the UK is the largest in Europe. Assist Resourcing Group is at the forefront of this growing market and ideally placed to benefit from the continued economic recovery and subsequent drop in unemployment.”

“At Lloyds Bank, we are dedicated to supporting local British businesses and look forward to helping Assist succeed in the future.”

Assist were advised by Ian Johnson of Cowgill Holloway LLP and Peter Bibby of AB Corporate LLP.

Ian Johnson, corporate finance partner, commented “We have provided strategic advice to Assist for a number of years and I am delighted to have participated in the transition to a funder who is well placed to support the next stage of growth for the business.”