Meridian’s first branch was founded in Altrincham in 1989, by chairman Rod Kavanagh, where the company headquarters remained until 2016 when they moved to new state-of-the-art offices near Manchester Airport. Having expanded from just four desks in 1989, the company has grown to be one of the UK’s largest privately owned recruitment agencies with a £100 million turnover business with 50 branches across the UK’s major towns and cities, from Glasgow to Exeter. Over the years Meridian has earned a reputation for a high-quality consultative approach, excellent customer service and industry leading expertise.
Meridian has witnessed the recruitment industry change dramatically over the last 30 years; an 80s recruitment consultant would have relied on a rolodex and a fax machine whereas they now have access to online job boards, applicant tracking systems and social media. However, with great power comes great responsibility and the recruitment industry faces more legislation than ever before – AWR, GDPR and IR35 to name but a few. Meridian has always prided itself on being at the forefront of any legislative changes affecting the industry allowing them to offer their clients a compliant approach and expert advice to protect their business.
In January 2017 Derek Skelton was appointed as managing director of the industrial sector and within a few months, he took additional responsibility of the office and professional and health operations. This resulted in some significant contract wins, the weekly gross margin growing and the various business units improving the net profitability. In September 2017, Derek was promoted to chief executive officer for the Meridian Group.
Today Meridian’s extensive network of branches provides over 4,000 temporary staff on a weekly basis and places over 1,000 permanent candidates each year. Employing 245 staff, the company fills in excess of 200,000 bookings every year, successfully supplying to over 1,500 companies.
“It is an awesome achievement for any company to celebrate their 30th Anniversary and I feel very proud to be leading such a successful business which is full of fantastically talented people who have been making a difference to recruitment for the last 30 years,” said Derek Skelton. “The future is bright for Meridian; over the last 30 years there have been some tough times but the business has navigated its way through those and we have big plans for growth! The best is yet to come for Meridian – watch this space!”
