Against a backdrop of a worldwide pandemic and economic uncertainty, The MCG Group certainly had some tough odds to overcome during the last 12 months. But despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, the Group has stuck to its bounce back mantra to protect well-being, safeguard jobs, return stronger and has even managed to open its first international office this year.
The business which defines itself as a forward-thinking group of companies providing people focused services specialising in aerospace, construction, education, healthcare and technology, set its sights and ambitions high from the outset. Since its establishment in 2009, the Group has demonstrated growth year on year organically and through acquisition, an achievement that was recognised in 2018 by Financial Times placing the company on its FT 1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies list.
This unwavering ambition has fuelled the Group’s next chapter which despite the pandemic and the restrictions it brings, 2021 sees the business open a South Africa office bringing an additional eight team members to the company, soon to be twelve.
Colm McGinley, CEO of The MCG Group, explains the company’s focus on talent plays an equal part in continuing the business’ success: “Our value proposition is simple, we are All About Great People – we only work with great clients, great candidates and we only employ great consultants. This ‘people first’ attitude teamed with our steadfast appetite to exceed our ambitious goals is enabling us to bounce back from the pandemic’s impact in a stronger position.”
Grant Henderson, COO of The MCG Group, says the new realm of online and remote working opened up new business ideas to the Group’s board of directors, allowing them to think outside the box of the traditional methods they’d enjoyed success with to date: “During a business review, the very remote idea of looking at offices abroad was born. We looked at various options but an obvious location for me to investigate personally, was the country where I grew up, South Africa.
“As soon as we started to look at how things might work, we quickly realised all the benefits. The schooling system, customs and culture, grasp of the English language and time zone all align very well with us here in the UK. There are also many highly skilled and hard-working people who are in a tough job market and are very keen to engage with an international brand such as ours. We also knew that as our business started to grow again in all its sectors, we could effectively and efficiently add headcount in South Africa to increase our capacity and support our UK businesses.”
The MCG Group appointed Brett Duncan as Director and Shareholder of the South African business. With his own recruitment business in South Africa and connections to source talent, Brett has been instrumental in working closely with the UK-based board to ensure solid governance of the business on the ground. Following a rigorous interview process Marc Feher was hired to lead the business from start-up to fully functioning team and to set up the new office in Umhlanga, Durban North.
Marc was born and raised in Durban but had the opportunity to work internationally holding leadership positions in Investment, Pharmaceutical, Marketing, Hospitality and Outsourcing markets.
Despite the challenging circumstances of establishing the South African business from scratch alongside the restrictions of Covid-19, Marc and Brett set up a fully functioning office in a matter of weeks.
From starting the month of January with only Marc as a full-time hire, the new office has entered February with 8 new staff members with plans to have 12 people by the end of March.
Marc Feher, Country Manager of The MCG Group: “In a relatively short time, we have established a fully functioning business with exceptionally well qualified employees. Brett and I are both firm believers that our vision in South Africa is to create a service excellence hub that outperforms all expectations for the Group. The goal is to be able to support all channels and divisions of the Group and create strong, sustainable relationships with UK divisions from top to bottom, whilst giving opportunity to a large pool of well qualified South African candidates.”
The MCG Group is extremely excited about its new international chapter and how the future of the new office location will shape and improve service delivery across the entire Group in the months and years to come.
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