he sales floor is a hub of activity at healthcare recruiter Day Webster, where staff are beavering away at row after row of desks that recede into the near distance. It’s a far cry from the scene just eight years ago when Hugh Woods Ballard and his co-founder and fellow director Daniel Wise launched the company from a service office in Liverpool Street in the City of London. Since then the Loughton, Essex-based company has gone from strength to strength, its staff numbers shooting up from just two in 2009 to nearly 300 today. The company’s impressive record of growth has now been recognised in Recruiter’s latest FAST 50 rankings. Compiled by mergers and acquisitions (M&A) specialists Clearwater International, the 2018 FAST 50 reveals Day Webster to be the fastest-growing privately owned recruitment company in the UK. In 2016, turnover hit nearly £90m, up from £63.6m in 2015, with profits after tax up a third on the previous year at almost £4.9m. Such an achievement is the stuff of dreams for many recruitment bosses, but for Woods Ballard, its basis is disarmingly simple. Asked the principles behind
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the company’s success his response is succinct and to the point: “Build a solid base, a high-volume low-margin business and treat people well. It’s as simple that; it’s not rocket science,” he says. It may not be rocket science, but it’s a formula that has propelled the company to its current exalted position. Reminded of his quote in the media at the time of the launch that he had “always wanted” to run his own
company, and that it was “now or never”, Woods Ballard says he felt “embarrassed”. But eight years on there is certainly nothing for the ex-group finance director at Morgan Hunt to be embarrassed about, as Day Webster has taken an ever-increasing share of the healthcare market, and now has around 250 mainly NHS Trust clients. “We never expected to have done as well as we have done,” Wise admits.
Daniel Wise 2009 to date: Director, Day Webster 2007-09: Sales director, John Michaels Search 2004-06: Manager, Healthcare Locums
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