Group chairman Tony Berry
Berry Recruitment Group (BRG) celebrated another year’s success at its annual awards ceremony which was held at the Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel in London.
Almost 200 of its staff from its 35 locations across the country gathered at the iconic venue and heard how the group’s turnover has risen to a touch under £70m.
BRG presented long service awards as well as ‘board recognition’ awards, ‘star performer’ awards, ‘best rookie’ awards as well as the best billers and branches.
Staff from its growing head office operation in St Albans also received awards for their efforts.
BRG has three brands; Berry Recruitment, Wild Recruitment and Wild Berry Associates.
It has made two acquisitions since last autumn and continues to grow organically.
The winners – 84 per cent of whom were women – took to the stage to receive their awards from Chairman Tony Berry.
Group MD Chris Chown
MD of the group, Chris Chown, addressed the room and told them on International Women’s Day that the hotel was on the site where famous suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst once lived.
He added: “As a business we need to embrace diversity and inclusion at all levels – not only internally but also in educating our clients.
“Companies which embrace diversity are much more likely to financially outperform their industry’s national average.”
He continued: “While we are all aware of the general business climate, the fact remains that unemployment is at its lowest since 1975.
“Research has shown that 80 per cent of businesses believe they will maintain or increase both their permanent and temporary headcount over the next year.
“Clients still say that their biggest concern is finding the right candidates.
“As a board we really value our staff – and we should value ourselves and our excellent service to customers.
“As a group we need to focus on clients, candidates and our own consultants.”
Wild Recruitment in Portsmouth was the most profitable branch again, and also won an Achievement of Net Profit award.
Staff there picked up individual awards with Tom Greenwood named Wild Manager of the Year and Claire Adaway picking up a Board Recognition award and coming runner-up in the Perms Consultant of the Year award.
Danielle Martin also bagged a brace, winning a Board Recognition award and coming third in the Temps Consultant of the Year category, and Emma Chandler won Wild Newcomer of the Year and a Star Performer award.
Clare Tombs won an Outstanding Business Support award and Anna-Lise Twigger won the Wild Rookie of the Year award and a Star Performer award.
Wild Recruitment
Tom Greenwood
Claire Adaway
Clare Tombs
Danielle Martin
Anna-Lise Twigger
Jennie McGrath, director of Wild Recruitment, and Tom Greenwood
Emma Chandler
Caryl Elston-Green from Harlow who won an Outstanding Business Support award. Caryl’s colleague Patrick Casey was also named at the ceremony of one of the group’s top temps consultants.
Harry Barkeley from the Kent branch won the Branch Person award
Debbie de Cordova who leads Wild Recruitment in Milton Keynes won a Board Recognition award and her colleague Emma Foley came third in the Perms Consultant of the Year category.
The branch also won the Achievement of Net Profit Budget award.
Berry Recruitment in Gosport won an Achievement of Net Profit award and Lisa Gregory came second in the Consultant of the Year award.
Boris Goddard from Hatfield picked up a Star Performer award
Katie Stratford from Central Support Services picked up the CSS Person the Year award
Ellie Lovelock from Central Support Services picked up the CSS Newcomer of the Year award
Amanda Holmes, Bilal Baree and Iuliana Xhafa from Berry Recruitment in Hendon. The Hendon branch won an Achievement of Net Profit Budget award and a Net Profit per Head award.
Manager Amanda Holmes was named among the top temps consultants and Iuliana Xhafa won a Board Recognition award.
Soraya Simms from Birmingham picked up the Newcomer of the Year award
Jamie-Lea Chapman from the Brentwood branch won the Top Biller award
Rachel Murphy, regional manager (left), and the King’s Lynn team. The team at King’s Lynn received the Highest Growth Branch award and an Achievement of Net Profit award.
Krissy Highmore of Berry Recruitment in Southampton received the Most Clients Visited award
Mohammed Rauf who works at the King’s Cross branch won a Board Recognition award.
Area sales manager Karen Neale was awarded the Berry Recruitment Manager of the Year award. Furthermore, the Loughborough branch also won an Achievement of Net Profit award.
Charlotte Severn picked up a much-coveted Outstanding Business Support award.
Cristina Munteanu was Onsite Consultant of the Year for her work based at a client’s premises in Northampton.
Regine Coulter (right) from Berry Recruitment in Northampton won an Outstanding Business Support award.
Kathy Rusher, manager of Berry Recruitment in Oxford, received the Branch Social Media award.
Sophie Requena from West Wickham was named Rookie of the Year.
Debbie Hanton Sutton received a Board Recognition award.
Sharon Copeland from Sutton received a Star Performer award.
Vinay Kapoor who works onsite in Bedford received an Achievement of Net Profit Budget award on behalf of Onsite Solutions.
Manager Collette Ellis from Warrington picked up an award for Achievement of Net Profit.
Nicola Marshall from Wild Berry Associates in London won a Star Performer award.
Zion Blaze from our Llanelli operation picked up an Achievement of Net Profit Budget award.
Jane Hind from West Wickham was first in the Perms consultant category.
The other winners included Max Perceau from Southampton Construction who won a Star Performer award and Emma Foley was the third placed perms consultant.
Brite Aning-Amoah from King’s Cross, Patrick Casey from Harlow and Charlie Parker from King’s Lynn all picked up temporary consultant awards.
Awards were also given out for long service with Debbie Dowling reaching the ten year milestone.
And those who have been with us for five years were: Harry Barkeley, Susan Barry, Debbie de Cordova, Kate Foley, Boris Goddard, Natalie Hamilton, Martin Hazard, Jo Hills, Annabelle Howkins, Danielle Martin, Toni Royale and Anna-Lise Twigger.
Notes to journalists:
Berry Recruitment Group is a specialist recruitment group operating in the private and public sectors from 35 locations across the UK.
Employing more than 200 people, Berry achieved more than £69m turnover in 2018.
There are seven specialist Berry divisions covering office and professional, technical and IT, rail, construction, driving, industrial and catering and hospitality.
With its head office in St Albans, Hertfordshire, Berry was formed by recruitment industry experts including Tony Berry, former head of Blue Arrow and Manpower, and Ian Langley, former chairman and director of infrastructure recruitment specialist, Airswift Holdings.
Berry’s core group values include innovation, integrity and professionalism.
Tel: 01727 898650. Email: spencer.berry@berryrecruitment.co.uk
For more information contact Ed Baker, Account Director at Deep South Media on 01202 534487 or 07788392965
