Charlie Walker: Vivid Resourcing

Charlie Walker, 27
Company: Vivid Resourcing
Web: www.vividresourcing.com

IT recruitment isn’t a sector to set hearts a-flutter, so how do you create something different, a bit exciting, as well as solid and effective? A £7.3m turnover, projected to be £12m next year, helps. Vivid Resourcing is three years old, and has seen the third highest compound growth rate of any recruitment business in the UK. Charlie Walker’s achievement is all the more impressive when it’s taken into account that in 2009, the NHS made up 65% of Vivid Resourcing’s business – this has now been reduced to 15% with no pause in growth.

Saying that, Walker admits the economic climate of the last few years has been his biggest obstacle: “Our marketplace shifted dramatically to give our end clients more power at the negotiating table.”Furthermore, a number of clients have gone into administration, meaning savvy handling of cashflow has been critical. Despite this, the firm is flying and European expansion is underway, with an Amsterdam office on target to be up and running by early 2012.