An ambitious recruitment agency is looking to create new jobs and expand to other areas of the region after seeing turnover grow year-on-year since its launch.
Laura Claughan started Whurk Recruitment from offices on Aycliffe Business Park more than three years ago.
Now with seven members of staff, the firm saw sales climb to £1.3m earlier this year and expect that figure to top the £2m-mark.
Whurk Recruitment relocated from Aycliffe to new three-storey offices on Post House Wynd in Darlington at the start of 2016, to give it more exposure to the general public.
And managing director Laura is confident her business, which works with several Aycliffe companies including Stiller Warehousing and Distribution and GT Coatings, will achieve its ambitious targets.
Laura said: “We launched the business three years ago and Newton Aycliffe was a purposefully-chosen home for us to begin with because of its location – there are lots of companies there and the transport links were perfect.
“But our growth in the last six-to-eight months has been significant – we’ve taken on more recruiters and we had outgrown our space in Aycliffe significantly.
“So the purpose of our relocation was purely to allow us to grow, but we also wanted to be more accessible for candidates. We felt that coming into the high street, where people walk by in the lunch break or when shopping on a day off, would make us a lot more visible and would give us own building, allow us to put our own stamp on it.
“We’re very active online and through our social media channels, but it’s important for people to be able to touch and feel us a bit more.”
Laura expects to take on at least three new employees this year, growing her team to 10, with a long-term aim of growing turnover to £4m.
The 30-year-old added: “We currently service about 60 live clients every week and our target is to service at least 80.
“We’re also looking at additional locations to further grow the business. Our new office in Darlington is fantastic for us, but the aim is to have at least one other location by the end of the current financial year, somewhere in the North-East to service our clients in the Newcastle, Sunderland and Durham areas.
“In terms of where we want to go as a business, we’re very ambitious. The medium to long-term aim is to get to £4m-a-year turnover.
“But the main aim is to continue to stick to our original vision, which was to be a recruiter that delivers results based on the customers’ needs.
“We’re in a significantly over-crowded and heavily-competitive industry – there are lots of recruiters out there offering the same services, so it’s about how we continue to stand out and be different, and that really is about the personal service we offer and how we deliver it.
“A lot of our growth has been on the back of repeat business. We’ve retained a lot of our original customers and I’ve worked with some of our existing customers for nearly in 10 years in previous roles. It’s nice that our clients keep coming back to us.
“We also try to be quirky and innovative in our approach to our own marketing and we’re always looking for ways of doing things better or differently.”
Whurk Recruitment services businesses in a range of sectors including engineering, manufacturing and logistics as well as office-based commercial and senior management roles.
• For more details about Whurk Recruitment and its services, go to www.whurk.co.uk, email [email protected] or call the team on 01325 778535.