Doublespeak for shrinking?

Recruitment industry commentators claim that consolidation in the sector is long overdue.

But the recent announcement that Palladian Investments Limited is acquiring recruitment consultants Whitehead Mann Group plc tells a different story, according to John Wakeford from Leeds and Manchester -based rival recruiters, Hitchenor Wakeford Search and Selection.

Wakeford believes that the deal signals a familiar retrenchment for a London-based business that has over-extended itself the provinces.

The boards of London consultancies face intense competition, high metropolitan overheads and a saturated market. They seem to think that the quick-fix is to open a few ’me-too’ operations in the sticks, says Wakeford.

They think the going will be cheaper and - if you don’t mind getting your hands grubby with a bit of industrial muck - the pickings will be easy. We’ve seen it time and time again.

Wakeford believes that northern-based consultancies are best run on the spot by committed recruitment professionals, and not by professional investors in London.

The truth is that the major northern cities are already served by recruitment professionals of the highest calibre and, far from being nave and gullible, northern business people need more than a flash London address and a public school accent to sway their judgment, he says.

So fingers get burned and the London-based outfits ’consolidate’ or to put it bluntly, retreat back to the Smoke with their tails between their legs.

If this pattern repeats itself, Wakeford speculates, the profitability of the northern offices of Whitehead Mann will soon be coming under very close scrutiny.