Kieran Smith

Together with Gwynne Lewis, Operations Director, I orchestrated an MBO where we bought Driver Require from EPIC Private Equity. We financed the deal with new funding from Chrysalis VCT.

Having moved on from Autocue Group Ltd, I was approached by EPIC Private Equity to run one of their latest acquisitions, Driver Require Ltd, a specialist driver recruitment firm based in Hertfordshire. The strategy was to rapidly grow the company through geographic expansion. I immediately set about implementing an aggressive growth plan, opening 3 new branches across the northern Home Counties in the first year. The timing was unfortunate and in mid 2008 the recession hit hard, reducing sales by 50% meaning that we had to cut back considerably. The growth initiative soon became a turn-around exercise as I downsized the company to a leaner operation than it had been at the time of acquisition. As part of the turn-around I decided it was necessary to reduce my involvement for a short period during the worst of the recession; accordingly in early 2009 I took on an additional role as CEO of Green Energy Plantations. I returned to my full time role as CEO in early 2010, re-activating the three new branches and driving a concerted business development programme. By the end of 2010 the company had returned to break-even. By 2012, despite still being in the midst of the recession, the company had exceeded pre-recession sales levels. Driver Require has since grown profitably at an average rate of over 35% per annum from 2012 to 2019, and is now one of the most successful specialist driving agencies in the country. In 2017 the company won two awards at the Hertfordshire Business Awards, in 2019 was listed at 29th position in the "Recruiter Fast 50" recruitment companies and also won an award at the Barclays biz4Biz awards. Most recently the company was listed in the "Recruiter Fast 50" list for the second year in a row.