Fusing the global reach and expertise of two leading recruitment forces, the deal will see Digital Gurus benefit from Rethink Group’s market leading talent management proposition, thus enabling it to become the first in the digital sector to offer a full range of talent acquisition and management services.
The deal will also have a significant financial impact, taking Rethink Group’s projected 2016 turnover to £140m and growing its global workforce to more than 200 client-facing consultants across ten global offices managing over 1000 clients.
Digital Gurus’ strong brand presence in London, Dubai and Sydney will be retained and grown under the leadership of its original founders as part of the deal. The company will work with its new owners to create a powerhouse in the world of digital, technology, and analytics recruitment with plans in place to expand the Digital Gurus offering around other UK cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol.
Combining the businesses will enable significant cross-selling opportunities across the larger Group, especially in addressing the digital skills’ shortages faced by many Rethink clients – something Digital Gurus will now advise on globally. Rethink Group CEO Steve Wright explained: “The convergence of traditional IT and the explosion of digital technology means that UK corporates must start planning to address the new digital skills demands that are forecast over the next 4-5 years. A recent study released by O2 predicts 766,000 new digital jobs will be created in the UK by 2020.
“We have a great track record delivering business and technology staff to our clients in the UK and internationally. By bringing Digital Gurus in to the Group we can now expand on that, providing our existing clients with the full range of digital and analytic skills as well as positioning our growing talent management capabilities to Digital Gurus’ client base.”
Added Farooq Mohammed, founder at Digital Gurus: “For the past eight years we’ve gone from strength to strength in the digital recruitment sector, but this deal elevates our potential. I’m particularly excited about the prospects for us collectively in offering the most leading edge talent management services to the digital sector, a crucial USP in a competitive skills market.
“Ultimately it is a partnership which will bolster all our skills and will keep us all well ahead of the curve in advising our clients on the commercial digital revolution.”
The news comes less than a year after Rethink’s acquisition of Consort, an RPO talent management specialist that bolstered its presence in the financial and retail sectors. The subsidiary has now been successfully integrated into the Group’s talent management brand, RTM; creating 15% growth and increasing RTM’s turnover to £65m last year.
Wright expects this latest acquisition to have the same impact, concluding: “This acquisition enables us to extend and future-proof our approach to talent management, which will be of increasing importance as corporates wrestle with current and future skills demand.”
Rethink was established in 2005 and has grown year on year by delivering talent management and recruitment services in the UK and internationally, helping transform client businesses into higher performing organisations. The Group now comprises a number of successful brands including RTM, ReThink Recruitment, Berkley and Digital Gurus.
