A Cheshire-based technical recruitment company has secured a £5m funding deal with Investec Capital Solutions.
Russell Taylor Group said the new funding arrangement will deliver the next stage of the firm's business ambitions.
The Neston company, which also owns Recruit Right, NMS Recruit and Perpetual Engineering Partnerships, now wants to grow its combined turnover from £35m to £50m within the next three years.
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On Tuesday, Cowgills announced it had secured financial services firm Investec as a new funding partner.
Ben Russell, CEO of the group providing technical recruitment solutions for industries including construction and manufacturing, said: "Having gone through numerous MBOs and acquisitions we needed to put in place a new funding arrangement to deliver the next stage of our business ambitions.
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"It was important to us to build a relationship with a funder that could provide a high level of personal service and we tasked Cowgills to identify a new partner and manage the tender process. We ultimately selected Investec who demonstrated that they had both the strength and flexibility to support us as our business grows.
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“At the size we are, we could have gone to a high street bank, but Investec is very much relationship-led which was a key deciding factor for us.
"Their service is driven by the people that make the decisions and they take the time to talk and listen which is really important.”
Having sold two businesses in 2020, the 120-strong group's working capital requirement was reduced from a "highly complex" £25m facility to £5m.
Cowgills' specialist team was instructed to identify new funding options with a range of lenders.
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Mr Russell said having access to flexible working capital was "critical" to growth for the recruitment industry.
He said: "Recruitment businesses are working capital intensive since clients are on 45 and 60 day terms but you're having to pay out temporary workers weekly.
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"So, unless you have very, very deep pockets, having a working capital facility in place is a must. Investec tailored a £5m facility for us, offering a higher prepayment percentage than we have had historically, enabling us to focus on driving rapid growth.
“At the time we engaged with Investec one of our businesses had come under increasing cash pressure as it didn’t have a pre-existing invoice discounting arrangement in place. Demand increased suddenly and Investec showed great flexibility in taking that business on for six weeks to help us handle the pace of growth.
"We are really pleased that they will now be supporting our business as we move forward with our plans to become a £50m business in the next three years."
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Investec’s Sean Thomson added: “We are of course absolutely delighted to be partnering with Ben as he builds out his vision.
"We recognise that as an experienced in-sector entrepreneur we were backing Ben, and not just his business.
"Having worked with Cowgills over the years, their input has been invaluable as always, and in this particular case allowed us to develop a relationship with a dynamic and exciting group, where we see a long-standing future partnership.”
Benjamin Day, director at Cowgills added: "We were very impressed at how quickly Investec turned around this transaction in a competitive situation. They understood the business very well and delivered every step of the way."