Sheffield telemarketing firm saves 60 jobs as rival company goes into administration

Sheffield-based Ant Marketing has saved up to 60 jobs after a rival telemarketing company collapsed at the end of April.

Anthony Hinchliffe, Ant’s chief executive who set up the St Mary’s Gate-based firm 27 years ago, heard the news and immediately began offering the employees positions within hours of losing their jobs at insurance agency Leopold Health Ltd.

Anthony’s HR and training team were able to interviews dozens of candidates that afternoon, offering around 26 of them full and part time jobs. A further 30 or so have since been recruited.

Gareth Millar, who had only been at Leopold for eight weeks when he lost his job, said: “We had been told how well the firm was doing, doubling its fees month on month and even in April they kept saying everything was fine. Then, on April 26, we were all called into a meeting and told the firm was insolvent; we had to clear our desks and leave there and then.

“We were all in shock but somehow Anthony got hear about it and started to contact people, word started to get around – if they were good candidates and able to have an interview that day then there were jobs available.

“I had an interview and started the next day. It was hard for many people as we were finished just two days before pay day so everyone was worried about paying bills, rent and mortgages.”

Anthony has experienced the shock of redundancy before, having suffered a similar fate earlier in his career.

Joey Underhay, training manager, explained: “He was determined to help the staff as he knew exactly what they were going through. We had to move fast and wanted to get as many as possible back into work as quickly as possible.

“We completed 1-2-1s and then it was a matter of finding the right roles for people - they have a wide range of skills; sales, lead generation, appointment bookings and so on. Just a few weeks on they have all settled in, but we are still supporting them – it’s a big learning curve for all of us.”

Ant Marketing now employs around 400 staff, 24 hours’ day seven days a week, working on a variety of national and international campaigns for clients in both the B2B and B2C sectors.

Anthony concluded: “The team had the kind of skills were looking for so it was a sound business decision as far as I could see, but having gone through it myself all those years ago I remember that awful feeling of being made redundant and I wanted to take that away from them as quickly as possible.”