A new financial services offering from an Ipswich-based recruitment company has exceeded turnover by 50 per cent in its first six months.

Pure Resourcing Solutions launched its new financial services division in December. In its first six months, the team has placed more than 60 people in financial services roles and has built an impressive client list including Willis, one of the worlds leading professional services firms and Crown Mortgage Management, a growing private equity-backed mortgage servicing company.

With a booming financial services sector in the east of England, accounting for 79,000* jobs, Director of Pure, Lynn Walters, saw the opportunity to provide a specialist service to leading employers based in the region.

Pure Resourcing Solutions has offices based in Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich and Chelmsford. The Ipswich office opened five years ago and quickly built a solid reputation for successfully recruiting finance, HR and office support roles to a range of businesses including many financial services organisations.

Lynn said: "By creating a dedicated financial service division we have been able to expand on the relationships we already had in place and increase the service we can provide to both clients and candidates."

The new division helps financial service businesses, such as insurance, pension firms and specialist mortgage providers to find experienced claims managers, account handlers, underwriters and project managers to fill vacancies.  Pure also provides financial services businesses with director level recruitment, for roles such as change management leaders, finance directors and business development directors.

"The new service has already been extremely well received by clients. It has been Pure Resourcing's consultative approach that makes them different," explains Guy Barnes, HR Recruitment Partner at Willis Ipswich. "They don't over promise and give realistic appraisals of the market and focus on the solutions for a particular hiring requirement. Pure have an excellent track record with Willis Ipswich and we are increasingly finding new ways to engage their services."

Lynn, head of the division, highlighted the experience of the team which includes Paul Sheldrake, Jodie Abbott and Donna Heeley as the driving force behind the success.

"Paul and Jodie were part of the team which originally established the Ipswich office of Pure with me five years ago," said Lynn. "They have become well known in the region, and it was due to the close relationship they had built with financial services clients such as Willis that we spotted the opportunity to expand the service we offered. We then recruited Donna to add depth to the team's experience through her insurance broking background."

"Between us, we have more than 30 years experience in this sector, so clients are dealing with trusted, experienced consultants with strong knowledge of their sector. While candidates know they can come to us to find the best roles with leading financial employers."

Lynn concluded: "We are now planning to extend the dedicated offering across Norfolk and Essex to support the concentration of financial services clients in Norwich, Ipswich and along the A12 corridor through Chelmsford and in to London. Our ambition is to be the first choice for financial services recruitment in this region."