Thirty Three closes office in Scotland
The Drum has learned that marketing recruitment firm Thirty Three has closed its Scottish office, although it’s London and Bristol operations remain unaffected.
Having launched in August 2008, the Scottish office of Thirty Three was headed up by Alan Kelly, former managing director of Barkers Scotland alongside former employee of Thirty Three in Bristol, Sarah Cochrane and former Barkers employee Wilma Lesley.
Andrew Young, chairman of Thirty Three explained that while the company was aware of the ‘difficulties’ in the economy, it turned out to be ‘much worse’ than was imagined.
“There was absolutely no client business to go for in the Scottish market and the public sector didn’t help,” said Young.
The Scottish operation was appointed to the Scotland Excel £42m public sector framework in November following a tender which lasted around six months, including delays.
“We were positioned as the top supplier in the recruitment advertising framework by Excel, but the delays in the award of that contract. Then, having made the supplier list, they couldn’t actually guarantee us any business or revenue which meant that we were still in a position where we couldn’t see any prospect of the business becoming profitable in the next six months,” continued Young who added that the rates being charged by competitors in Scotland also made it ‘very difficult’ to make any money leading to the decision to close the office.
Young added that both the London and Bristol offices of Thirty Three were ‘very healthy’ and that they were not affected by the closure of the office in Scotland.