Scaling a nationwide retail support operation
Sector: retail operations and field services · Period: June 2021 to August 2022 · Led by Julian Britain
A field operations provider needed to grow quickly to deliver a major new contract, without losing control of cost, quality or compliance.
A retail support and field services provider had won the opportunity to bid for a significant contract, but its existing team of 16 was nowhere near the size needed to deliver it. Growing that fast, in a short space of time, brings real risk around recruitment quality, training capacity and cash flow.
The business also had no experience of accessing government funding to support job creation, and recruitment had historically been reactive rather than planned against a resourcing model.
We built a resourcing plan that matched headcount growth to contract milestones, so recruitment was staged against real operational need rather than done all at once.
We identified and secured government funding to support job creation, covering 11 fully funded positions and reducing the cost of scaling the team during the growth period.
Recruitment, onboarding and training were run in parallel with the contract bid, so the business could demonstrate genuine delivery capacity as part of the tender process.
16 → 43
Employees scaled in under a year
£68,000
Government funding secured for 11 fully funded positions
£3.8m
Contract secured on the back of demonstrated delivery capacity
- Stage headcount growth against contract milestones rather than recruiting in one large, risky push.
- Check for available government or grant funding before assuming growth has to be self-funded.
- Use recruitment and onboarding progress as evidence of delivery capacity during a live bid or tender.
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The engagements below were led by founder Julian Britain.
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