TEDCO Business Support Ltd has helped South Tyneside based firm, CAS Recruitment, successfully obtain a five figure investment from Rivers Capital Partners to fund new expansion and innovation across the globe.
CAS Recruitment, launched in June, has very quickly become one of the UK’s leading lights in the specialist recruitment of F1 and aviation engineering personnel.
The business was started by Stephen Wilkinson, an aircraft engineer with many years experience working for major international names in the aviation market. After a number of negative experiences dealing with recruitment firms on major projects, he recognised that the industry deserved a more experienced recruitment service with a better understanding of the technical abilities and skills needed to support employers.
Stephen Wilkinson, managing director of CAS Recruitment said: “The F1 and aviation sector operate very much at the cutting-edge of engineering. When working as an engineer, too often recruitment firms actually impeded projects by providing candidates who were ill-equipped to manage the workload required. I could see a gap in the market for someone with a strong engineering background to provide the link between candidates and employers to deliver a more successful outcome.
“There was a certain lack of moral value in a lot of the firms I dealt with, focusing too heavily on the final fee rather than the quality of the service they were providing to the industry. I really took this on board when setting up CAS recruitment. I wanted to inject some ethics back into F1 and aviation recruitment.
“I know all the regulatory aspects of working in the field of motorsport and aviation and I bring this knowledge to every part of CAS Recruitment. There is a real shortage of quality engineers in the industry. It takes 7 years to train as an aircraft engineer and we want to make sure that we are building our reputation on the quality of the candidates we supply to our clients rather then the level of fees we earn as we know we must retain talent within the industry to survive.”
CAS Recruitment works across the F1, aviation and marine engineering sector recruiting for a range of roles including stress engineers, mechanical technicians and wind tunnel technicians. The firm works globally for clients throughout Europe, the Middle East and the Far East from their base in South Shields.
Stephen continues: “It became clear to us when we launched that the recruitment industry needs to innovate to provide the right kind of service to our candidates and clients. We have ambitious growth plans and we needed investment to help fund the development of new processes to lay the foundations for future expansion. We approached TEDCO Business Support initially for some advice and they put us in touch with one of their business advisors, Bill Hartshorne.”
Bill Hartshorne guided CAS Recruitment through the Start & Grow programme, which is delivered by TEDCO Business Support in the North East. The programme offers one-to-one advice, mentoring and access to finance to help new enterprises in their start-up and expansion journey.
Stephen continues: “It was an interesting process and Bill worked tirelessly to give us the right level of support we needed to meet our goals. He thoroughly stress tested our business plan for weaknesses and guided us through what became an arduous process to obtain the financial investment we needed.
“In spite of some initial disappointments, we were eventually successful in receiving a five figure sum from Rivers Capital Partners which has set us on a positive path for the future. Our first focus is to complete development on a new app to automate our timesheet processes, improving services for both candidates and employers.”
Supported by the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), Start & Grow is delivered across England by the Cavendish Consortium in areas where there are lower levels of business start-up. The Consortium, made up of six regional enterprise agencies, together with National Enterprise Network, has already helped to create over 10,000 jobs nationwide and is well respected for its independent and impartial advice and achieving excellence in business enterprise.
Bill Hartshorne, business advisor at TEDCO comments: “Stephen is a very focused businessman with a clear idea of how CAS Recruitment should position itself and where the business can improve its services. It was evident from our first meeting that CAS Recruitment had a strong business plan in a market which showed real potential for growth. However, getting the administrative processes in place to deliver on their ideas and service promises was a key consideration.
“A major focus of the Start and Grow programme is to help new enterprises expand by supporting new businesses looking for routes to investment. CAS Recruitment is a perfect example of how investment can positively impact the prospects of your business and I look forward to working with Stephen and his talented team a great deal more in the future.”
