A RECRUITMENT company is expecting to reach £5m sales by the end of its second year in business – a five-fold increase it credits to booming North-East manufacturing. MTrec, based at Cuthbert House in Newcastle city centre, has grown from one consultant last year to a team of 12. It generated £1.6m in the first quarter of this year – £200,000 more than its entire first year of trading. The company operates both temporary and permanent recruitment divisions and attributes its success to a burgeoning North-East manufacturing sector. It is planning to launch its own internal graduate training programme in October to keep pace with demand. Operations manager Andrew Thorpe said: “We operate on behalf of hundreds of manufacturing clients throughout the North-East and the signs have been very good that companies in manufacturing are recruiting. Areas such as food, packaging and the process industries are all expanding. “Obviously this has been very good news for our shareholders and our bank but we are not getting ahead of ourselves. “The key thing is to control our growth, ensure that we service our customers with commitment, and not get carried away with the success we have had in such a short period of time.” MTrec’s permanent division, which is driven by one-off recruitment fees paid on the successful appointment of a candidate, is responsible for about 15% of the company’s turnover. Mr Thorpe said: “Our permanent division places engineers and managers in various manufacturing sectors including food and automotive component suppliers.” The company says it provides about 45 companies throughout the North-East with more than 350 temporary workers through its temporary workers industrial division, including forklift truck drivers, assembly operators and other shopfloor personnel. Mr Thorpe said: “We are very successful in the automotive sector and provide large numbers of workers for several component suppliers to Sunderland’s Nissan car plant. “We are planning to open an office in Washington on site at one of our major automotive supplier clients in the region because of the large numbers of workers we are finding for them – although agreement has yet to be finalised.” The company was founded by Rob Armstrong, has David Musgrave as head of the temporary industrial division and its longest serving consultant James Doyle is head of the permanent technical division. | 
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