Calibre Search has reported revenues of £5.5 million, with a surge in early stage construction driving growth.
The Leeds headquartered recruitment company specialises in the built environment, HVAC, IT and marketing and is on course to register revenues of £6.6m in 2022, a £2m increase on its 2020 turnover figure.
Its Manchester staff have also moved into a new 1,461 sq ft Northern Quarter base and will introduce 10 further specialist recruiters by the end of the year.
Pete Gillick, Director, Calibre Search, described the past several months as ‘the busiest period in the company’s history’, and predicted further growth in activity well into 2022 and beyond.
It comes after new construction orders rose by 9.2% (£1,121m) in Q4 2021 compared with Q3 2021 – higher than the last full quarter not affected by the pandemic (Q4 2019), according to the Office for National Statistics.
New orders in Q4 2021 are also at their highest level since High Speed 2 affected Q3 2017.
“Part of our vision is to be the ‘go-to partner’ in the industries we service and I think we are achieving that,” said Pete.
“The demand for talent that we are seeing from our large corporation and SME clients is similar to the economic boom of 2005 / 06,” said Pete.
“While 2020 was tough, we bounced back very quickly. Many of our clients are at the earlier stages of construction and can’t find the right people themselves which continues to drive opportunities.”
Calibre Search’s clients include the biggest names in the built environment space; with many saying they can’t respond quickly enough to big jobs, according to Pete.
“It’s across the board,” he said. “We recruit for roles including engineering consultants, construction professionals, environmental scientists, architects, planners and hydrologists and are seeing more corporate activity than we’ve ever seen before. And it’s not just the private sector.
“You can’t drive anywhere without seeing roadworks at the moment, housing is taking off and there’s a lot of work in flood defence. The challenge is finding the talent to fill the gaps. But we’ve never been this busy and we have a superb team and hope to recruit more of the same quality.”
On Calibre’s recent move across Manchester’s Northern Quarter, from The Landmark building on back Turner Street to the newly refurbished 19th century building Nine Stephenson Square, Pete said: “We are finding that after an initial drive of people wanting to work from home that some now want to leave the house more often. That has led us to investing in a much improved and newly refurbished office space which offers the highest quality environment when it comes to the experience of coming to work.
“We will be doubling headcount from seven to at least 14 in the next 12 months and have the capacity to grow to over 20 staff in Manchester.”
