For a small fledgling start-up, they certainly punch above their weight, recruiting for SMEs, several household names and £billion turnover global organisations.
Both directors previously held senior positions for a medium sized recruitment business, working their way up from ground level and playing integral parts in that business’ growth from a few million-pound turnover to over £60 million.
In 2018 they took a leap of faith and decided to set up their own business, just outside Leamington in their home village of Bishops Itchington – Zoe focusing on HR, Finance/Accountancy and Business Support and Matthew on Supply Chain, Customer Service, Sales and Management level hires.
As Matthew says “We had several family members and friends warning us it was a massive gamble (they were right!), we had a mortgage and a young family to support and going from secure roles with guaranteed salaries to having to rely on savings for several months was tough.”
They were both confident though. This was not unchartered territory for team Brellis. Matthew had opened several recruitment offices and completely new divisions from scratch and Zoe was one of the top performing permanent consultants in the previous business, while still managing to oversee multiple offices. Matthew and Zoe had been very ‘safe’ in their roles so you may ask why make that leap?
“We had both become disillusioned with how the recruitment industry had begun to evolve into a CV race and working for a larger organisation it was difficult for us to influence the processes and procedures. As well, the further up the pecking order we went, the less we were involved with the actual part of the job we both loved -meeting candidates and pairing them with great companies. We wanted to offer the experience we had gained through years of hard work and work in our own way, taking ownership of projects and being accountable for the client/candidate/consultant journey.” reports Zoe.
Brellis clearly pride themselves on thoroughly understanding the organisations and businesses they are dealing with and take time to meet shortlisted candidates in person, understanding their needs, ambitions and personalities to ensure they fit the jobs we represent perfectly.
365 days on, neither Zoe nor Matthew have any regrets. To date they have made over 70 permanent placements, recruited their first employee, Nicole, launched a successful temporary division and opened a third division to service Oxfordshire as well as Warwickshire and Staffordshire.
The future is bright for Brellis as they continue to follow their own strapline of ‘BE YOUR BEST’