Newport-headquartered Acorn confirmed the acquisition of Oracle Global Resourcing for an undisclosed amount - its third major takeover in three years.

With its head office based in London, the Oracle business, which will now trade under the name of Exxell, is projected to contribute £14m of additional revenue to the Acorn Group.

Exxell will provide Acorn with a presence in the south east of England with offices in central London and Woking, as well as extending Acorn's national coverage in providing technical recruitment and employment across specialist sectors, such as engineering, rail, facilities management and construction.

Founded in 2004, Exxell has a staff of 25 supplying more than 400 temporary staff each week to businesses across the South East region as well as other parts of the UK. Clients include EDF Energy, Bailey Maintenance, Westinghouse, Alfred McAlpine and Network Rail.

Acorn's goal is to achieve a turnover of £100m by the end of 2009 - and the company said the acquisition puts it on track to hit that target.

It follows the addition to the Acorn portfolio in 2007 of both Crewe-based Advance Personnel, and the largest recruitment company in the south west of England, Concept Staffing.

Matt Southall, founder and managing director of Acorn, said: "The incorporation of Exxell into the Acorn Group brings a further £14m revenues to our business and, as well as bolstering some of our sector expertise and client portfolio quite considerably, also extends our locations to include London and Woking.

"This comes at a good time for the Acorn Group. Over the last two to three months we have bucked the general trend in our sector and seen improvement in our overall performance and profitability. This new addition helps to underline to our existing and prospective clients, that despite the knock-backs resulting from the recent state of the economy, we are still very much intent on growing and developing into a major player right across the UK.

"The move fully underlines these intentions and continues to help position Acorn externally as a dynamic and ambitious multi- specialist business, and in particular strengthens our reputation in the rail, engineering and construction sectors as well as across the board in general industrial."

Rhondda-born Nigel Rees, director of Exxell, said: "Becoming part of the Acorn group will help provide us with an increase in resource and, coupled with their considerable experience, will allow us to grow the business significantly in the years ahead."

The south east of England was traditionally one of the most economically-active regions of the UK and would offer many more opportunities for Exxell as well as the enlarged Acorn group to extend its branch network and make further inroads into the permanent and temporary employment market, he said.

Aug 26 2009 by Aled Blake, Western Mail