Leading UK recruiter Acorn Recruitment Ltd has acquired B2B Engineering Pty Ltd, a Perth-based oil and gas recruitment provider, via its Australian subsidiary, Synaco Global Recruitment.
Established in 2000 by Directors Marc Van Der Smissen and Vince Kenny, B2B Engineering specialises in supplying white-collar professionals to energy, oil and gas facilities across Australia and the Pacific region, and has a turnover of AUD $10m.
The company has developed a reputation for providing specialist recruitment support to clients for a range of major projects, onshore and offshore, for the last 15 years.
With offices in Perth, Darwin and Adelaide, Synaco, a subsidiary of Acorn, works across a number of sectors, filling both blue-collar and white-collar positions with locally-based candidates, whilst also working closely with Acorn in the UK and internationally to source and place hard-to-find technical skills from overseas into Australian organisations.
Marc Van Der Smissen, Director of B2B Engineering, said: “Becoming a part of Synaco and the Acorn Group is a terrific opportunity for our clients and contractors, with whom we have maintained a valued and successful relationship for many years.
“We at B2B have worked hard at developing a reputation for placing the best professionals for technical roles at major projects across Australia, and as such we have built a terrific rapport with employers and professionals right across the industry.
“The ongoing quality and reliability of service to our clients and our contractors was foremost in our mind when looking to find the right team with whom B2B would continue the next stage of its development with, and so we were delighted to join forces with the guys at Synaco and Acorn.
“In the UK Acorn has a remarkable long-standing reputation, and here in Australia through their Synaco brand, has also developed a superb reputation locally – trusted by both employers and contractors alike, and therefore we look forward to working with them going forward.”
As part of the deal Directors Marc and Vince will both continue working with Synaco in an advisory capacity.
Group Managing Director of Acorn, Matt Southall said: “We have achieved rapid growth in Australia over the last few years, something we’re hugely proud of, particularly with the high levels of client retention we experience and the commitment demonstrated by our growing pool of contractors.
“The acquisition of B2B Engineering is the perfect opportunity to continue our development further, and brings with it new opportunities to both clients and contractors as we expand our activities across Australia.
“By combining the experience, energy and expertise of B2B with our own, Synaco’s and B2B’s customers will continue to see increasing value in our services to them.”
He added: “It’s an exciting time; B2B is a great fit and we look forward to working with Marc, Vince and their team, who we’ve got to know really well over recent months.”
Synaco Global Recruitment was established in Australia by Acorn in 2012, initially in response to the increasing demand for international recruitment to the mining, energy and resources industries. The company has subsequently built up a growing portfolio of local recruitment across most sectors, placing local recruits into a range of technical, engineering, logistics, IT, communications, utilities and infrastructure positions across three states and territories.
Synaco is part of the UK-based, £120m Acorn group of companies and their ultimate parent company, leading recruiter Synergie, is the world’s 15th largest recruitment organisation with 600 offices world-wide and a turnover of circa €1.7bn.
Clients of B2B include, among others, AGC Australia, Quadrant Energy (previously Apache Energy), Monadelphous KT, PPI Australia, Technip Oceania and Clough AMEC.