Hoop Recruitment, one of Wales’ leading independently owned recruitment companies, has transitioned to employee ownership.
Established in 2016, the business turns over around £20million, has offices in Cardiff and Swansea, and employs around 40 members of staff. It specialises in recruiting for the nursing, social care, social work, education, HR and professional services sectors.
Founders Paul Lewis and Hywel Roberts met when they worked together at another recruitment agency. Both left to pursue other careers but kept in touch and eventually hatched a plan to create a recruiter that was customer/client focussed, rather than profit focussed, and so Hoop Recruitment was born.
Paul and Hywel feel that the employee ownership trust (EOT) model is critical for the future success of the business and are more excited than ever about the change being created in the recruitment industry.
Paul explains: “At Hoop, we pride ourselves on doing things differently. My co-founder, Hywel Roberts, and I started the business with a clear mission – to create a recruitment agency that genuinely puts people first, breaking away from the industry’s sometimes challenging reputation. Since then, we’ve grown steadily, and this year we reached a significant milestone by transitioning to an EOT. This change has given our team a real stake in the future of Hoop and aligning with our commitment to building a business based on trust, collaboration, and long-term thinking.
“As a CEO, you want your business to grow and thrive in line with our values and beliefs and we feel that Hoop can and will do this even more under the ownership of our employees.”
Paul added: “We have always had a great working culture here at Hoop. We have worked flexibly since the business started and find that being flexible and family friendly, we attract the best recruitment professionals in the industry to work for us. Now, being employee owned we can give even more back to our team, effectively creating a company full of business owners, our workforce is more determined and focused than ever to deliver on our vision, mission and purpose.
“We are now massive advocates for EOTs and using this business model we hope to expand and make Hoop one of the largest independently owned business in Wales and create a business that we are even more proud of, a business that gives back as much as it can to its clients and staff alike.”
There are no plans for Paul or Hywel to leave the business, with Paul remaining as the CEO and Hywel as the COO and both will remain on the company board. The new board of Directors comprises of Paul and Hywel, as well as Rhian Smith, Hoop’s Director of Nursing, Sarah Leigh, Head of Social Work, Luisa Gale, Hoop’s HR Manager, and Blair Driscoll, Director of Education at the company.
Acuity provided legal advice to Hoop Recruitment on its EOT transition, with BPU advising on its valuation. The business was also supported by Social Business Wales, delivered by Cwmpas.
The Employee Ownership Wales service from Cwmpas is part of Social Business Wales and of the Business Wales family, both funded by Welsh Government.
Branwen Ellis, specialist EO Consultant for Cwmpas, said: “It’s been a pleasure to work with Paul and Hywel and it was clear from the outset that the employee-ownership model would work well for them and the business, as it was clearly aligned with the organisational culture. I think they both considered the EOT model, not only to be a good succession planning option but also a way to further enhance their organisational culture, to empower their workforce and give something back.
“I look forward to seeing Hoop go from strength to strength under its new ownership and wish them all the best for the future.”
