Innovation, investment and successfully forecasting the market helped one of the UK’s leading purchasing groups to realise significant growth in 2017 despite the uncertain economic climate.

The Regency Purchasing Group hopes to continue to buck the trend in 2018 by recruiting a number of additional people to its field-based workforce.

Rising food prices, the minimum wage, economic uncertainty and the impact of Brexit have all made businesses more eager than ever to secure the best possible prices on products and services.

The Regency Group, leisure and hospitality industry procurement specialists, has seen business grow by 38% as its members looked to make the most of its expertise.

Managing Director Alex Demetriou said:

“In today’s increasingly challenging environment, more and more businesses have realised that they cannot achieve their margin aspirations without a properly structured procurement system or process.

Cost controls, as well as compliance, can be both time-consuming and costly if not executed correctly, and rather than suffering the cost of recruiting and managing their own procurement teams, we are seeing more businesses appoint purchasing groups like Regency.”

The growth seen throughout 2017 means that the Regency Group is looking to get the New Year off to a positive start by increasing its 22-strong field-based workforce.

Mr Demetriou said:

“We are looking to recruit an additional five people to the field sales team this month (January), and are currently planning to take on another three in April.

We believe that people, and the relationships that we forge, are at the heart of everything we do. It is hugely important that we have field-based staff to offer onsite assistance to our members, from joint meetings with suppliers to setting up and delivering food development days.

We can only do that effectively by developing and nurturing a motivated workforce, which is why we believe in a strong group dynamic.

We all work extremely hard but being involved in a business that is growing at the rate that we are is exciting and our team is thriving on being part of that journey. Of course, as the business grows, it creates further opportunities and career progression.

From day one, we wanted the Regency Group to have a reputation as a good organisation to work for, and I’m proud to say that, two decades on, we have done this, and our reward has been that we have been able to recruit highly-talented individuals who, in turn, are able to bring beneficial savings and services to our members.”

A key factor behind Regency’s success has been the fact that it has developed its expertise – beginning with the leisure industry – from direct, hands-on, experience, gained through its own estate of leisure businesses and attractions, such as Weston-super-Mare’s famous Grand Pier.

The group’s own industry experiences, challenges, identified needs and lessons learned has enabled it to tailor what it now offers its members, and this, in turn, has enabled the Group to expand into other sectors.

Mr Demetriou said:

“It all started for us in the leisure industry, but we have seen significant development in other areas, such as education and health care, resulting in us recruiting dedicated specialists in these areas over the past two years.”

The Regency Purchasing Group works with more than 2,700 leisure businesses throughout the UK, including some of Britain’s biggest and best known attractions, hundreds of golf clubs, plus pubs, hotels, zoos, farm attractions and many others.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to help the Regency Group support its members, visit www.regencypurchasing.co.uk/careers