Acorn bolsters engineering expertise with further acquisition

One of the UK’s leading recruitment and training agencies Acorn has acquired part of the Cardiff-based Track Safe Telecom (TST), the telecoms, installation and infrastructure management business operating in the rail sector.

The move follows Acorn’s acquisition last month of the national engineering recruitment specialist Exxell, whose clients include EDF Energy, Bailey Maintenance, Westinghouse, Alfred McAlpine and Network Rail.

Acorn has acquired TST’s Signaling & Telecoms Division, which supplies specialist engineers to the rail industry, and it also acquired its subsidiary Rail Safety Solutions (RSS) whose technical specialists provide safety and critical planning expertise. The S&T Division will now be incorporated into Exxell, Acorn’s specialist engineering company securing the jobs of 37 employees in Lancaster, and adding to its new offices in London and Surrey.

The acquisition underlines the Acorn Group’s repositioning in recent years to a multi-specialist recruiter operating throughout the UK, and in particular through it’s new Exxell brand across the engineering and technical sectors.

Matt Southall, founder and Managing Director of the Acorn Group, said: “The recent acquisitions show that despite the difficult state of the economy, we are still very intent on growing and developing our activity right throughout the UK. We are continuing to buck the trend in the recruitment industry as we have been in recent months, with discernable improvement in our overall performance and profitability.

“The incorporation of both RSS and the additional S&T recruitment activity into the Group helps strengthen our position as a leading engineering specialist, and it’s great news for the Exxell team to be able to demonstrate our investment in the new brand by making such a move so soon after becoming part of the group.”