Five years ago, Suite 5 in the Heards Building in Parnell opened for business with the name Hunter Campbell on the door.
Back then the business was a start up with three desks for Founding Partners John Nevill, Ken Webb and Lee Marshall. Senior Consultant John Boyle soon followed.
The vision was to create a boutique recruitment and search firm that built on the partners’ areas of expertise in Accounting and Finance as well as Supply Chain, Procurement and Operations.
In the early days, the team focused on building a brand in the market that was agile, highly consultative and able to provide their loyal client base with the best talent in the market.
Today, Suite 2 lies empty. Hunter Campbell has moved across the hall to Suites 3 and 4, a bigger space for their team of 20 and counting.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this is where we would be today. Hunter Campbell has grown beyond our expectations in quite a short period of time,” says Lee.
John credits the knowledge and experience of the consultancy team as one of the key ingredients to Hunter Campbell’s success.
“Specialisation is critical because you need to speak the same language. Each of our consultants has a deep understanding of the areas they recruit in. That means they often see things differently or they can add a new perspective for the organisations and the people they’re working with.
“For us, it was critical to hire the right people. We have a sensational team and we wouldn’t be where we are today without them.”
Lee says the loyal client and candidate base has also contributed a lot to Hunter Campbell’s success.
“We are very lucky as most of our business comes from referrals and word of mouth, which is testament to the great job the team does. We’re still working with many of the same clients, candidates and candidates who have since become hiring managers as we did in the beginning and with many, it’s a true partnership,” he says.
Over the past five years, Hunter Campbell has increased the services on offer within their core areas of expertise while also expanding – both geographically and into new areas including tax and contracting.
Ken says: “In addition to our current offering in the Supply Chain space, we’ve been able to move to the next level where we are advising organisations on how best to structure and operate their supply chains so they are more efficient and effective. Through this process, they’re able to unlock value. Moving into advisory has been a step change for us and it’s working really well.”
“Another highlight for me was joining with Numeric in Cambridge earlier this year. It’s meant we’ve built a partnership and a presence in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty with Ben Kershaw and Carleen Thomson. Ben’s a tax expert so now the service we can offer is now broader.”
All three Founding Partners say the culture and the team are the aspects of Hunter Campbell that they are most proud of.
“We set out to build a successful firm that delivered excellence while staying true to our values to always operate with integrity and doing the right thing,” John says.
“We have grown a lot, but that culture hasn’t been lost. I think a lot of that comes down to shared values among all the people that work here.”
Lee adds: “We are so busy but we have a laugh and everyone gets on. It’s nice to walk in the office in the morning and see that everyone is happy to be there.”
So, after five successful years, what are the plans for the future?
“Keep doing what we’re doing focussing on our areas of specialisation and building great teams so we can deliver top talent to the businesses we work with,” Ken says.
“We’ll always be true to ourselves and never compromise our values.”
