A TEESSIDE recruitment firm has made a triple appointment after winning a clutch of new orders.
TechConsult UK has secured contracts to supply workers for projects in Africa, Holland and Asia, with overseas work now accounting for around 60% of its work.
The Wilton-based firm has also been active in the UK market, clinching deals with two petrochemical firms and an engineering company on Teesside and winning work further afield in Aberdeen and London.
On the back of the contract wins, the Norwegian-owned company has taken on two more recruitment consultants, Ruth Jackson and Steve Affleck, and office administrator Margaret Blackburn - swelling head count at the Teesside office to seven.
Margaret, who lives on Teesside, brings extensive experience to her role, having worked as a PA and HR coordinator for several international engineering firms.
Steve Guest managing director of TechConsult UK, said the appointments and new orders had put the company on course to at least match last year’s turnover of £3.8m.
He said: “The bulk of the contracts involve supplying workers for projects, which are typically six to 12 months long.
“But we have also won orders to supply permanent staff to companies in Asia.
“It’s been a strange year.
“The first couple of quarters were tough - a lot of people were holding cash within the company and were not looking to increase their operations.
“But since then things have picked up.
“Companies, especially on the subsea side of things, are still trying to extract as much oil as possible from hard-to-reach places, which requires people with technical and engineering know-how.”
Based at the Wilton Centre, TechConsult UK operates mainly in the offshore, fabrication and maintenance, process, shipbuilding, and civil engineering industries.
In recent years it has expanded rapidly overseas and has placed a number of workers on projects in Singapore and Malaysia.
Mr Guest said he was eyeing up other international markets but would continue to grow the firm from Teesside.
“We’re still very much focused on beefing up our Teesside operation,” he said. “We also want to have operations in key engineering hubs around the world.”
Launched in 2006, the Wilton operation is part of the Norwegian-based TechConsult Group, which has offices in Bergen, Oslo and Stavanger in Norway.