Swindon-based IT recruiter Outsource UK has acquired rival Omnium IT Recruitment, creating a £35m turnover group with 45 staff and 400 contractors working for clients throughout the UK and Europe.
Omnium, based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, was set up in 1999 by Melanie Bose and Rosanne Meek, and has enjoyed significant growth over the past 12 months.
The acquisition supports Outsource UK’s strategy to aggressively increase its market share over the next two years and further strengthen its position as a leading player in the IT recruitment sector.
Outsource founder and managing director Paul Jameson said Omnium was an attractive proposition as it was a preferred supplier for a number of companies, including two leading financial services firms.
Outsource UK itself is a leading provider of IT personnel for financial services, servicing blue chip organisations such as Nationwide and Santander.
“We were attracted to Omnium because we were impressed with the business, which seemed to fit well with our own,” said Paul.
“This is an important step for Outsource UK, as the staff of Omnium and founders, Melanie and Rosanne, have an unrivalled relationship with their customers and bring a set of skills and energy that will strengthen the combined group.”
Melanie and Rosanne will continue to run their part of the business from the Newcastle offices and, for the medium term, it will remain known as Omnium.
Rosanne said they had selected Outsource UK as one which had a “good fit”. She said: “Finding the right business to partner was critical to Melanie and myself, as our staff, clients and contractors are very important to us and in Outsource UK, we have found a company which values relationships as highly as we do.”
This acquisition is the latest in a string of successes for Outsource. As well as marking its 20th anniversary this year, it launched a graduate trainee scheme, to enable it to grow its next generation of recruitment consultants.
Already the 160th largest recruiter nationally, out of 7,400 – and the 35th largest IT recruiter – this acquisition can only see its position strengthen.
Outsource UK’s other accolades include accreditation by the industry’s governing body the REC and membership of APSCo, the industry’s professional body. It has appeared in the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 ranking of independent fast-growing companies.
This year the company entered Swindon Business News’s published Top 100 list of Swindon’s largest companies. It also came ninth in Recruiter magazine’s list of the Fast 50 recruiters. Earlier this year Outsource UK was a finalist in the Recruitment and Employment Confederation industry awards.
