Specialist recruitment consultancy Prescient Group is celebrating doubling its turnover in its second year of business and adding new team members to its office at Spinningfields, Quay Street.

The firm, which has further branches in Nottingham and London, was formed during the pandemic in 2020 by seasoned recruiters Joel Fletcher, Charlotte Churm and Ed Robinson.

With a specialism in office professional, Prescient Group has experienced rapid growth since its inception, with turnover growing by over 50% in 2022 compared to 2021. The company is also on track to reach a £1m turnover by the end of this year.

The company has grown to eight recruitment professionals, with the recent appointment of Georgie Leech as Temps Account Manager and Daisy Owen as Permanent Consultant at its Manchester office, and recruitment continues across its three offices, which will take its headcount to 15 by Q4 of 2023.

The expansion of the team and continued demand for its recruitment services – which cover office, supply chain, marketing, finance and HR – has also led to the team taking larger premises in Nottingham.

Director, Ed Robinson, said: “Our focus when setting up Prescient Group was to set ourselves apart from our competition by utilising our 50 years of combined experience to create a world class end to end recruitment service.

“Looking for the right candidate or role can be extremely difficult, especially during these unprecedented times, which is why we pride ourselves on making a positive impact to our clients and candidates lives with our fantastic team of experts.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Georgie and Daisy to the Prescient Group family. With their positive, driven attitudes and impressive experience, they will both make wonderful additions to the team and we wish them every success in their new roles with us.”

Over its 20-months in business, Prescient Group has built up a portfolio of 65 clients, added executive search to its offer and expanded into the international market.

Ed continued: “Charlotte, Joel and I love what we do and we’re very proud to reflect on how far we’ve come in the past two years. We’d like to thank our fantastic clients and candidates for being with us on this journey and we look forward to what it to come next for Prescient Group.”

Manchester-based Broderick’s Group has recorded half year turnover figures that already exceed its average full year pre-pandemic performance, and early predictions indicate that 2022 will be a record year for the vending and refreshments business.
Attributing its stellar sales to extreme demand at Manchester Airport, Broderick’s has experienced a 25% uplift in the like-for-like periods March – June 2019 and 2022. This soaring performance came even before peak school summer holidays, which see 3.5 million people travel from the airport over the six week summer period*.
Before the pandemic struck, family-owned Broderick’s invested over £1 million into its airport vending infrastructure, to service customers with the very latest innovations, including converting its vending machines to accept hassle-free contactless payment. Three years later, the investment is paying serious dividends as Broderick’s braces itself for its busiest summer ever.
Primed to service and support a summer of record airport sales, Broderick’s has boosted its estate of airport vending machines by over 10%, with a total of 111 drink and snack machines installed across all terminals.
Further investment into telemetry means that machine stock levels can be managed remotely. This is a boon not just for business but for passengers who can be confident their preferred choice of refreshment will be in stock, as they contend with soaring temperatures as well as potentially long queues. In July, during the hottest two days of the year so far, Broderick’s busiest airport machine sold double the drinks it did during the corresponding pre-pandemic period, all without disruption to supply.
Thanks to the advanced telemetry systems, Broderick’s can stock its vending machines according to sales patterns and trends, terminal by terminal, removing the guesswork from what will need replenishing. For example, there’s an emerging trend for CBD and vitamin infused drinks at long haul gates, with mango juice proving popular at Far East gates. By turning the machines cashless, it’s easy for passengers to buy for their whole family in one simple transaction.
Managing Director John Broderick commented: ‘’Investing in cashless technology works for our business because it works for our customers. It’s so easy to buy from the vending machine and, because people aren’t trying to feed foreign currency into the machines, less faults are reported, meaning no interruption to service and less downtime from a business perspective. In fact, we’ve had a 28% reduction in service calls.
‘’At Broderick’s we’re all about exceptional service, from helping our airport clients to keep refreshments in stock so travellers can stay hydrated during their busiest periods, to making passengers smile with thoughtful savings and promotions through our Pay 4 Vend app.’’
Broderick’s Pay 4 Vend app is gaining exponential traction and is networked into the airport vending machines, where customers can earn rewards for repeat purchases and access unique discounts with local partner brands. One lucky customer recently won a holiday to Barbados through the app! With 100,000 active downloads recorded by the app store, the success of the app is a key indicator of how Broderick’s business is taking flight.
Talking about the busy summer, John Broderick said: ‘’although it’s usual to see a peak of activity over the summer months, we’ve never before experienced such concentrated demand. And I don’t think September will spell the end of the busy period, as that’s when the DINKYs – couples not tied to school holidays – will jet off.
‘’In addition to Manchester Airport, we also service Stansted, Liverpool and Birmingham airports, and it’s the same story at each! With the pandemic causing a body blow to businesses, it’s fantastic to be in a thick of a real boom period, and it’s great to see that all our team’s hard work and the investment we’ve made into the business is now reaping rewards.’’

Slater Heelis Solicitors has promoted eight within its private client division, bolstering its team to 22, with further new starters lined up in the coming months.

The Manchester-based firm puts significant focus on developing from within to provide employees with all the opportunities they can to help further their legal career; and these promotions see new positions created for Paralegals and Senior Paralegals in the Court of Protection field.

Michael Hartley, Christina Sorton and Louise Chapman, formerly in administrative, receptionist and secretarial roles respectively all now assume Paralegal positions. A further four promotions within the Court of Protection team for Ann Smith, Camella Galvin, Jordan Calder and Rebecca Calverley see them become Senior Paralegals. These individuals have a wealth of experience between them dealing with the management of the financial affairs of some of the most vulnerable members of our society. The Senior Paralegals are recognised for their skills and experience and their knowledge of this niche area of law.

The eighth promotion sees Tina McLoughlin move from Projects Coordinator to Head of Private Client Projects. Having started with the company as a secretary, she then spent 12 years in the Marketing department as a Communications Assistant, where she built up invaluable knowledge about the business before moving to the specialist projects team.

Commenting on the raft of promotions Georgina Garner, Partner and Head of Court of Protection said: “It’s a delight to see all eight of these well-deserved promotions, rising through the ranks of Slater Heelis. We are firm advocates for nurturing talent in the team and supporting everyone with both their personal growth path or wider career journey and I personally look forward to working with each and every one of them to see what the next stage holds. I am extremely proud of the team and continue to support them with their own personal development.”

North-West based company BrandBuildr ranks as 15th in The Sunday Times 100 fastest growing private companies
Sales last year reached £17.6 million
BrandBuildr is the parent company of three brands; Honu, Circulr and CRAFTD London
BrandBuildr, the business consultancy and group, has been recognised for its fast growth and expertise in building startups into successful companies as its named 15th in The Sunday Times Top 100 fastest growing private companies.

The business, founded in 2018 by entrepreneurs Danny and Amy Buck, has gone from strength to strength with the pandemic proving to accelerate the success and growth of three of its core brands; Craftd, Circulr and Honu. As a business its CAGR (compound Annual Growth Rate) is 135.4% for the past three years with the latest sales figures reaching an impressive total of £17.6 million across all three brands.

Honu is an ethical jewellery company with eco-credentials whilst Circulr is a direct to consumer e-commerce business retailer designer style sunglasses. The third business in the BrandBuildr family is CRAFTD London, which has seen huge growth since it was founded in 2019.

CRAFTD, started in 2019 by Danny Buck alongside business partner Alex Cannon, is a global mens jewellery brand that has been at the forefront of trends and seen favour from the likes of Connor McGregor and entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den mogul Stephen Bartlett. As a business, it hit the ground running with sales of £1.6 million in its first year and £11.4 million the following year with a pre-tax profit of £4.7 million.

Danny Buck, founder of BrandBuildr, commented: “It was a good one for BrandBuildr, and for our three core brands as well as the other retailers and startups we provide consultancy and expertise to. We liken ourselves to a mini version of The Hut Group, but that doesn’t mean we’re small in terms of sales or revenue. Our figures speak for themselves, and we’re not stopping there as we will push to see our sales exceed £20million for the next financial year.

“Being recognised as one of The Sunday Times top 100 companies is a great accolade for us, and recognises our growth and how far we’ve come since we began in 2018. We’re also pleased to see other North West companies climbing in the list too, and to see that retail and e-commerce continues to thrive and see substantial sales and revenue. For us, we have three great brands performing well and we can’t wait to see them continue to grow.

“Who knows, maybe next year we can push up to be in the top 10 companies in the list!”