Initio International was formed in 2009 through the management buyout of the staffing businesses of OG International, a large Japanese corporation. The MBO allowed Brendan Flood and the management team to fully own the business. Since then, Initio has experienced strong growth under Flood's leadership while maintaining a focus on core values of integrity. Initio operates specialty recruiting firms in the UK, US, and Spain, focusing on niche professional sectors like law, technology, and sales. Despite economic challenges, Initio has expanded its offices and services across its markets through organic growth and potential acquisitions. Flood believes Initio is well positioned for continued success by upholding high standards.

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RECRUITMENT INTERNATIONAL
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February 2012

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Initio International - No Compromise
On Core Values and Integrity
By Recruitment International
names. OG International elected to
Ri
implement a change of strategy in 2009 RECRUITMENT
February 2012
and the decision was made to move out
of recruitment in a controlled fashion
and Flood led the MBO of the US and
Spanish businesses, with enough capital
to kick-start an organic build in the UK.
The MBO completed in January 2010
Back in 2009 Recruitment International and Initio International was born.
featured Brendan Flood and reported on
his MBO to acquire Faro Recruitment, Brendan Flood said, “The MBO
from its Japanese owners. Fast forward was an ambitious project for the
two years to the present day and the management especially given that the
business has undergone the remarkable Initio businesses made losses in 2009
transformation into Initio, prompting and therefore our ability to generate
RI to revisit Brendan at his UK financing from the banking community
headquarters to discover more about was very limited. Our perseverance
this success story. has, however, paid dividends because
the journey has been a great success.
The History We are adequately capitalised, we made possible by the MBO and it was
Initio International was established the chance to turn all of the company’s
as a result of an MBO of the staffing “The MBO was an key employees into actual shareholders
businesses that were part of OG of the business. This was timed to
International Company Limited, a ambitious project for the happen on day one therefore enabling
substantial Japanese owned corporation. management especially all the participating employees to derive
The company was led by Mr Okano, the maximum financial benefits from
who himself was the former owner given that the Initio their efforts. It means that all of the
of Staff Services, one of the largest businesses made losses companies within Initio International
Japanese temporary staffing businesses are completely owned by the staff with
until its sale to Recruit Company, also in 2009.” no external shareholders and little to no
Japanese owned, in late 2008. The external debt other than Asset-Backed
trading name of OG outside of Japan Lending. A move which Brendan
was Faro Recruitment Group, although continue to be profitable, definitely describes as, ‘pivotal’.
many of the individual businesses on a growth trend and we have a
continued to trade under their former strong Balance Sheet. On an ongoing Building A Reputable Business
basis we have developed a very good
relationship with The strategy of Initio International
By The Numbers Sterling National has not changed a great deal from
Bank (in the US) that of Faro Recruitment, when it
2009 2010 2011 and with Venture
Pre-MBO Year 1 Year 2 was outlined in RI’s September 2009
Finance (in the issue. Flood, Briand (US CEO) and
£m £m £m
UK) and they Carmona-Moya (Spain CEO) have
Turnover 24.1 37.7 43.9
continue to supply built the company on a very strong set
Growth 56% 16% the company with of principles, underpinned by honesty
the support we and integrity. All the company’s
Gross Profit 4.6 6.8 8.5 require”. employees have to buy into this mindset
Growth 48% 25%
as there is absolutely no compromise
One of Flood’s on standards. Considering the changes
Operating Profit (0.6) 1.0 2.0 proudest
Adjusted EBITDA (1.7) 0.5 1.7 since the MBO, Brendan said, “Clearly
achievements was there are some changes, however we
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Initio International - No Compromise
By Recruitment International
remain on very friendly personal and through ALG Consultores in Spain. associates. Our continuing aim is to be
business terms with all of the former the quality benchmark for recruitment
sister companies and we have in fact In the US consultancies in New England.”
traded with several of them since the
buy-out. Where clients require a more Monroe Staffing Services LLC With a combined tenure of almost
international presence we are still very started in 1969, as a one-office firm 40 years with Monroe Staffing, the
capable of providing this. The over- concentrating management team is committed to
riding secret to the success of Initio is on contract growing the company in 2012 and
that we strive every day to ensure that design beyond. “We envision that the office
any interaction with any part of the engineering. network will grow from 13 in 2012 and
group is positive, whether you are an It now has we will look at infill acquisitions to
employee, a client or a contractor. We 13 offices supplement our growing professional
constantly seek feedback so that we can spread across business”. Matt adds.
continue to improve. “What did we do Connecticut,
well?” “What can we do better?” Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New In 2011 the US operation opened
Hampshire and New York. Monroe has two new office locations, both of
“Often, in the recruitment industry, developed from humble beginnings, which were profitable on day one, not
when a candidate is placed the to a point where it currently operates something many agencies have been
consultant moves on to his/her next from light industrial to finance, able to replicate. For this year Brendan
order to be worked. We stay in contact. accounting, office support and IT, on believes as many as 4 new offices will
Relationships are very important to us both a temporary and permanent basis. come online as the company leverages
and some of our candidates have been Since 2009 this business has been led its favourable position with many blue-
known to our consultants for ten years by Matt Briand, CEO and President, chip US and global companies.
or more”. who was previously the VP of Sales
and Operations and has been with the In the UK
This commitment to value has paid company for 11 years.
dividends for the three trading names of
the company. Initio operates through Matt Briand said, “My team and I
Monroe Staffing Services in the USA are committed to deep relationships, In March 2010 the Longbridge brand
(by far the largest part of the group), putting us clearly into a partnership was acquired by Initio International. It
Longbridge Recruitment in the UK, and position with each of our clients and came with a generally proud history,
although Flood admits there were some
‘chequered’ moments in there. He said,
“The brand came along, however, it
did not have any people trading under
the Longbridge name, therefore during
2010 and 2011 our task in the UK was
to build an organic business driven by
the desire to operate at the upper end
of the professional spectrum of the
industry. Many companies talk about
values, but as previously stated these in
Longbridge (as in the rest of Initio) are
non-negotiable”.
In late 2010, Longbridge started to
really develop and take on focus when
its three teams specialising in Law,
Sales & Marketing and Technology
merged. In 2011 they did 20% more
business together than they did apart in
The US team L-R: Paul Polito, Steve Miller, Matt Briand, Steve Thompson and Erik Schwartz 2010.
26 RI - February 2012 www.recruitment-international.co.uk

4. On Core Values and Integrity
With Flood as the CEO there are three this. Being based just outside of London
industry heavyweights managing the the company enjoys the best of both
three teams; Daniel Lewis (Law), worlds, easy travel arrangements and
Jonathan Cox (Technology) and Darren flexibility. Once recruiters are on
Carroll (Sales & Marketing). “We board they tend to ‘stick around’, staff
are unashamedly niche and are the turnover is extremely low and many
recognised specialists in each of our of the 120 worldwide employees have
chosen areas. We believe that the future been around since the company’s
of professional staffing is to remain formation.
focused on specialist areas in order to
provide the most comprehensive level Brendan is adamant that new recruiters
of service that it is possible to provide. will have a strong focus on niche
Clients expect us to understand their sectors, IT for example, law etc. What
business almost as well as they do. they will all have in common is a
We cannot deliver that level of service great opportunity to develop long term
without being focused”. Darren Carroll, careers both in the UK and overseas.
MD of Longbridge Sales & Marketing
stated. In Spain
The stance has proven to be a winning ALG Consultores was founded in 1994
one, from a standing start in 2010, the by Luis-Miguel Carmona-Moya; the
UK business has grown to one eighth of current Executive Vice President.
the group’s total gross profit.
“It has been well chronicled that the
It’s in the UK that Brendan sees a high economy of Spain has been very
demand for new recruiters as organic challenging over the past few years,
growth and potential acquisitions are with the sovereign debt crisis having
fuelling the company’s growth and a material impact on unemployment the storm. Old fashioned hard work
its appetite for more people. The UK levels. The depth of client relationships has allowed us to replace the declining
business is currently growing by 20% that ALG has developed over the years public sector needs, with an increased
with excellent service lines to increase has allowed it to weather the worst of offering in the hospitality sector and
also, very excitingly, we have moved
into the movie business!!” says
Brendan.
“During 2011 we provided extras
(temps) to work on two major movie
productions, one of which was a period
drama about Queen Isobel and the
exploration by Christopher Columbus to
the New World. In this movie we placed
our youngest ever temp – a six week old
baby for the christening scenes at the
beginning of the movie”.
“Being specialist in the automotive,
hospitality and training sectors, ALG
has managed to continue to deliver what
our clients require and are now seeing
positive growth in our two markets of
Madrid and Barcelona” said Luis-
The UK team L-R: Jonathan Cox, Brendan Flood, Darren Carroll and Daniel Lewis Miguel.
www.recruitment-international.co.uk RI - February 2012 27

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Initio International - No Compromise
On Core Values and Integrity
By Recruitment International
of the London School of Economics,
he joined Robert Half International as
a Recruiter at the age of 28, after an
eclectic career as a van driver, passport
office administrator, cleaner, world
traveller and local government town
planner. He remained with Robert Half
International for almost 21 years and
built up the UK operation from two
offices and 12 staff into a business with
a domestic turnover of £65 million, 19
offices and over 350 staff.
Listed in the '100 Best Business
Speakers in Britain', Jeff Grout is in
considerable demand as a motivational
business speaker, conference chairman
and interviewer. Jeff works with
a number of the leading speaking Nicholas T. Florio CPA
As well as running the Spanish Nick is a Partner with the accounting
operation, Luis-Miguel plays a very agencies and has spoken for a range of
firm of Citrin Cooperman, in New York
active role in the recruitment industry City, and provides extensive support to
in Spain, being on the Executive
Committee of Fedett, the temporary
“We envisage that the Monroe Staffing business. He has
over twenty years of support to service
staffing professional body.
the office network businesses and is a regular speaker
on the financial aspects of managing
Brendan and his management team
meet regularly to discuss and ensure
will grow from staffing companies. He has been a
non-executive Director of Initio for
that the company is on track to achieve
its objectives and to help them in the
13 in 2012 and two years and provided support to the
former leadership team for over ten
process, they have taken on board some
very strong non-executive directors.
we will look at years.
Non-Executive Support
infill acquisitions The Futures Bright.
Initio International is supported by
to supplement Without question there is a huge
opportunity at Initio, of which
two non-executive Directors with a
wealth of experience in the recruitment
our growing Brendan remains convinced despite
the uncertainty over the Euro zone. He
industry. As a management team
Brendan is very aware that he needs to
professional believes there is plenty more business
to win in the specialist markets that
have strong advisors who continually
challenge his Board’s thinking and help
business”. Initio operates in and he is totally
confident that by remaining focused and
them to ensure that they are moving in sticking to the company’s fundamental
the right direction. principles, there is a very exciting
clients including Deloitte & Touche,
Morgan Stanley, Tesco, Telewest, Sport future ahead.
Jeff Grout
England, BAA, Ernst & Young, UBS,
Football Association, Strutt & Parker, If you would like to know more about
Jeff Grout was the UK Managing Initio and its operating companies visit
Director of Robert Half International, Chartered Institute of Personnel &
Development and Saracens RFC. www.initiointernational.com or call
the largest specialist recruitment Brendan on +44 7730 667007 or email
consultancy in the world. A graduate at brendan@initiointernational.com
28 RI - February 2012 www.recruitment-international.co.uk