Grafton buys rival recruiter for €5m in market shake-up

GRAFTON Recruitment has swooped to buy leading Dublin jobfinding agency Mary B Cremin in a deal estimated to be worth up to €5 million.

The takeover will add four offices to Grafton’s existing Irish network of 25 and brings its number of branches in Dublin to 10. The Belfast-headquartered company, which now has 59 offices in 15 countries, generated revenues of over €100m last year, while Mary B Cremin’s turnover in 2004 was €9m.

Grafton co-founder and chairman James Kilbane said the takeover added “a great brand” to Grafton’s portfolio. “It’s very tightly-run, very profitable and will be revenue-generating from day one,” he said.

Mr Kilbane added that Mary B Cremin’s business would complement Grafton’s existing activities and signalled Grafton’s intention to keep expanding south of the Border. The company is already the top recruitment agency in the North and has a fast-growing central and eastern European arm that has benefited from the recent accession to the EU of countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

Mary B Cremin said the deal was excellent news for her business and its staff.

“We want to bring the Mary B Cremin brand and offering to a wider market and we realised that, to do this, we needed a partner with an all-island network,” she said.

“Grafton Recruitment is a company we have long admired and is the only indigenous company with the ambition and network to make genuine all-island recruitment a reality.

“The company’s growing global presence also convinced us that Grafton is the premier Irish employment solutions group and something that we want to be part of,” she added.

Grafton is understood to have beaten off competition from a number of interested buyers to land the company, which specialises in hiring administrative, legal, financial, sales and retail staff.

Aine Maria Mizzoni, the managing director of Grafton’s Irish businesses, said Mary B Cremin’s strong position would help the enlarged company grow market share in the Dublin area and further develop Grafton’s position as “the leading all-island employment solutions company.”