James Taylor, director of Nottingham recruitment firm Macildowie
What were trading conditions like for your business & your industry a year ago?
2012 was a good year for Macildowie, actually the best EBIT year in the company's history – filling more of our clients' vacancies that ever before. That's not to say it's all been a bed of roses. We've been under price pressure since the beginning of 2009. What we've done is adapted as a business to create a better-value proposition to maintain price at a time when competitors have only had price to compete/differentiate themselves.
What factors have had the biggest impact on trading conditions?
Consumer confidence and C-class executives realising that after a period of three years of driving EBIT through cost-cutting and right-sizing, that the time has come to look at driving sales growth through either hiring, or strategic marketing campaigns.
What have trading conditions been like so far this year?
Good, we've got a market-leading customer value proposition, have utilised the recession as an opportunity to invest in our people and, as a result, we're in a great position to take market share
Do you think the economy is improving/the same/deteriorating?
Marginal improvement on 12 months ago. Businesses are hiring more, we've had a material increase in the number of vacancies registered with our business and the recruitment industry is one of the best barometers for the economy – when confidence is low, businesses stop hiring. We're looking at taking on 15 new staff this year ourselves, so that must tell its own story
Are you more or less likely to invest in expansion/take on new staff than you were a year ago?
Yes – we've just concluded our five-year strategy plan – year one of the five (this year) is budgeted to take on 15 new heads. We're reacting early to the increase in demand from customers, we've always said that a marginal increase in demand will lead to a material increase in sales – so we're close to the market and are acting accordingly
In your view, what would help the economy recover most?
I've always felt that the centrepiece to the recovery would be the construction sector – let's get building houses and roads!