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business success in association with
Pharma sector proves just the job for Clinical Professionals
As an up-and-coming recruitment consultant working in London just a decade ago, James Nyssen made one very important decision. He chose to specialise in the pharmaceutical and biotech arenas, and today those form the foundation stone of the multi-million pound business he now heads
Clinical Professionals is Europe’s largest independent pharmaceutical research and development staffing organisation and can boast partnerships with eight out of the 10 global pharmaceutical companies, as well as many other organisations in the field.
It took just six years from its 2006 launch to reach an impressive £10m turnover and the scale of the company’s growth has been such that the Reading office has relocated eight times in seven years.
In June it moved once more, into smart new headquarters in Blagrave Street, providing room for further expansion for the 55-strong team.
Nyssen began his career in recruitment in 2001, rapidly deciding that if he was to make his mark he would need to find a growth area.
“Pharma recruitment seemed more stable and less likely to be affected by economic cycles, so for four years I worked for a pharma specialist,“ he said. “The market was quite fragmented and didn’t necessarily cater for the range of functions within research and development, so I decided to launch my own business.“
Like many good entrepreneurs, Nyssen treated the downturn of 2008/09 as an opportunity. At a time when others were shedding staff, he took on around 15 new employees, creating a strong platform from which to build future business.
In 2009 Nyssen acquired Only Medics, a specialist pharmaceutical physicians recruiter, and invested in a London office, an operation he describes as a “incubator of international expertise“. It is filled with staff who speak a range of different languages and are able to use their specialist skills and market knowledge to place candidates worldwide.
A German office was opened in 2012 and Clinical Professionals now places candidates across 15 European countries, while export sales have risen by some 15% a year. At the same time, Nyssen has expanded into finding expert staff for outsourced projects and consultancy roles.
“Our mission is to double our sales by 2015, both by extending our geographical coverage and also utilising our expertise to meet market demands,“ continued Nyssen. “This
is the most highly regulated industry in the world and much of the clinical research that goes on is conducted across many different countries. We have the expertise and the language skills to meet those client requirements.
“Functional service provision, where we provide bio-pharmaceutical organisations with staff for roles such as clinical monitoring or biostatistics, is also a big growth area for us and we’re really excited about its potential.“
This year’s turnover is expected to top £14m and Nyssen anticipates doubling staff numbers over the next 18 months. The business plans to reach the £20m mark by 2014/15, a move which will include expanding services into Russia, Turkey and Brazil utilising the “incubator“ model.
Critical to its success has been the expansion of the senior management team, with Yvette Cleland joining as group managing director and Glen Hall as finance director, together with the promotion and appointment of a further six directors and seven business managers, supported by an number of non-executive directors with global staffing and pharmaceutical industry experience.
Recently the Clinical Professionals team celebrated its outstanding success with a special awayday attended by Reading East MP Rob Wilson. By good fortune, he is parliamentary private secretary to health minister Jeremy Hunt and, says Nyssen, takes a very “proactive“ approach to supporting the pharmaceutical research sector.
During his speech, Wilson described the company as a “growing, thriving and world-class company“ which, he said, he was “proud“ to have in his constituency.
It was Clinical Professionals’ rapid growth which propelled it into the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 league table last year and sparked the link- up with the Barclays team.
Clinical Professionals team flanked by Gary Chugg and Dan Havercroft of Barclays
www.businessmag.co.uk
Dan Havercroft, Barclays relationship director corporate banking, based in
Reading, got in touch after reading about the business’ success. It was fortuitous timing, as Nyssen and Hall were talking to various banks about options to raise additional working capital to fund future staff investment.
“We went to six banks and talked about the different lending options available. Barclays actively promoted the Government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme which was ideal for our purposes,“ said Nyssen.
“We had other offers, but from day one the experience we had with Barclays was seamless. They did what they said they would do and came through very quickly, it was very refreshing and has allowed us to take on another 25-30 people this year.“
Havercroft said: “This is a young company with a fast growth rate and their biggest challenge was finding the right investment. We were able to simplify their existing finance programme which achieved significant savings and used the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme in addition to Funding for Lending scheme benefits to provide further capital for investment to help them grow for the future.“
Details:
James Nyssen 0118-9522790
james@clinicalprofessionals.co.uk www.clinicalprofessionals.co.uk
Dan Havercroft 07557-205311
dan.havercroft@barclays.com www.barclays.com/corporatebanking
The views expressed in this article are the views of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Barclays Bank PLC Group nor should they be taken as statements of policy or intent of the Barclays Bank PLC Group. The Barclays Bank PLC Group takes no responsibility for the veracity of information contained in the third part guides or articles and no warranties or undertakings of any kind, whether express or implied, regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information given. The Barclays Bank PLC Group takes no liability for the impact of any decisions made based on information contained and views expressed.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – SEPTEMBER 2013
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