Major Recruitment celebrated it’s 26th birthday in September, we’ve had many up’s and down’s. However, after 26 years we’ve never been stronger, so here’s our Major Recruitment Story!
1992
Major was born! The first office in Morley, Leeds and sent out it’s first placement, a tractor driver in West Yorkshire. At the end of each week, Major invited all of its temporary workers to the local pub for a drink. Three months later and it’s the end of the year. The pub asked us to stop coming in because they couldn’t handle the number of patrons!
1993
Major’s first company turn-over stood at £262,000, which was fairly mediocre in comparison to the upcoming years.
1996
Major opens up it’s first new division, Major Technical & Engineering (now known as Major Technical). At this point, margins on temps and perms were dwindling due to the vast amount of candidates available (especially in the Industrial sector). Having a single source was unsustainable, expansion into an industry with better skilled candidates and larger profit margins was needed. Thus Major Technical & Engineering was born!
1998
1998 was a tough year for Major. The company not performing as well as it had been doing in previous years. At this point 12 employees were at Major and to make a profit that year, a £400,000 gross profit target was set. At the end of the financial year Major unfortunately fell short of their target. The staff were so frustrated with themselves, they all offered to chip in their own money to reach that target. The director of course rejected their offers however this shows how determined and resilient Major are. We will always strive to reach and surpass our targets and goals at Major Recruitment no matter the circumstances.
2006
Major Recruitment tries something new and decides to invest in a commercial division. However, this was extremely difficult to get any success out of it. This was mainly due to Major Recruitment being recognised as a blue collar recruitment agency.
This wasn’t going well, however, I’d like to remind you that Major are resilient – so our commercial campaign wasn’t over. Tackling this commercial issue, they brought in new people with fresh ideas and a fresh marketing plan in 2007.
Major Recruitment trading as Mpeople Recruitment Ltd is formulated and is a huge success! Over the next 5 years Mpeople Recruitment trading as Major Recruitment Ltd continues to grow. They eventually become Major’s first equity partner – Mpeople Recruitment. This then paved the way years later for Major to adopt an EP scheme.
2011
We are progressive at Major Recruitment, we are always investing in new divisions many other recruiters don’t invest in. Some of these investments don’t work and this is fine. We learn from our mistakes and move on, such as the commercial Major division.
However many investments do turn into successful business schemes, for example Major Energy. Major Energy, developed in 2011 (the same year Major Logistics also opens), is now Major Recruitment’s most profitable division. The development of Major Energy has also allowed us to get the Major name across the world with clients from countries such as Ghana, Egypt, Azerbaijan and even Brazil!
2013
Major Healthcare joins in on the action and proves to be a massive triumph. The healthcare division again brings new situations for Major Recruitment, which in this case is the branding. Instead of using the recognisable ‘Major’ orange, Major Healthcare uses a blue colour palette in their branding.
2016/17
The EP scheme was developed through Steve Ball Recruitment and Blakeney Point joining the Major family. The scheme is designed to allow individuals with an initiative drive their own recruitment business with back-office support of Major. Our 26 year experience gives faith to individuals starting their own business. In that we can offer expert knowledge of the recruitment industry and provide them with quality support. We’re a family at Major, united in our efforts for everyone to achieve something beyond all of our expectations.
2019
Major Recruitment have added a couple of new divisions in Major Automotive and Major Civil Engineering; as well as expanding its EP scheme significantly, making a total of 19 equity partners. We now have 24 branches across the UK. Meaning that we’re not only a force in the north of England, but we’re operating on a national scale. We currently have 150+ staff and in April 2018 company turnover stood at a company best of £19.4 million.
The Major Recruitment story
Obviously, the full story cannot be fully expressed in a 1,000 word blog. We’ve stuck together through highs and lows, not to mention the recession! We have come out of the other side better than ever. Major Recruitment is continuing to expand every day and we have no intentions of slowing down.
At Major, we feel our story and experience in the recruitment industry is something that should be shouted about, however we never actually have; so here we are, proudly starting to shout about us!