Altrincham-headquartered international recruiter NES Global Talent and Cheshire-based Fircroft Group are to merge, it has announced.
The unified business, to be known as NES Fircroft, will have operations in 45 countries, it said.
With a $1.1bn turnover, NES specialises in placing engineers and technical personnel with blue chip clients in the oil and gas, chemicals, power and life science sectors, while Fircroft specialises in recruitment for the oil and gas, chemicals, ICT, energy, renewables, mining, automotive and construction sectors.
NES chief executive Tig Gilliam said: “I am so proud of what this NES team has accomplished over the last few years as we have grown and diversified our services and end markets.
“I am delighted to now welcome the Fircroft team to NES’s growing family.
“Offering the very best solutions for our clients and career opportunities for our contractors and consultants requires scale and deep expertise. Bringing the NES and Fircroft teams together delivers on these requirements and will further strengthen and support our values of service, client focus, compliance and safety.”
NES Fircroft will be led by Mr Gilliam, while Fircroft chief executive Johnathan Johnson will join the NES Executive team as Executive Director alongside chief operating officer Simon Coton and chief finance officer Stephen Buckley.
Mr Johnson will also join with the current NES board members to make up the new NES Fircroft Board.
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Mr Johnson said: “This is a really exciting time in Fircroft’s history, to join forces with NES Global Talent and create a single, unified business to compete at the highest level.
“Our combined businesses will significantly extend our geographic footprint, strengthen our client and contractor network, increase our participation in key end markets and harness the specialist skills, knowledge and expertise of our combined teams.”
The merger comes after NES Global Talent announced in November 2019 it had expanded with a new office in Manchester city centre.