Meet the Professionals: Abatec
9th October 2023
North Somerset is home to many wonderful and unique businesses and organisations. This month, we’re delighted to introduce Abatec
How did Abatec start and how has it developed?
Abatec has been synonymous in the Weston area for over 35 years, supporting regional and national business with finding the best talent across the Industrial, Manufacturing, Civil Engineering, and IT markets.
40% of our £12m turnover is generated across the North Somerset area, and 90% of our internal workforce live in North Somerset. We have developed into one of the success stories of local businesses, employing over 200 workers every day to local businesses.
Why did you decide to base yourself in North Somerset?
Abatec recently went through an MBO and the two owners, Richard Buchanan and Rob Dyer who are originally from Weston, were offered an opportunity to move our operations to Bristol, where many of our competitors are based, and arguably recruiters are easier to find, but we made it clear on purchase that we are committed to staying in the area, safeguarding local jobs and creating new ones!
How do you attract talented staff?
We are very fortunate that our average length of service at Abatec is 9 years, however, when we do recruit one of our best internal recruitment strategies is working closely with Weston College in offering young adults the chance to start their careers through the apprenticeship route. We have a clear career path for our staff to follow, with our management team all coming up through the ranks – Rob Dyer is a great example of this, having started 18 years ago as a trainee and is now the co-owner!
What have been your biggest challenges?
The biggest challenge we face as a business is the continuation to deliver on behalf of our customers, to give our customers the best possible service, we took the decision to invest in more people to deliver the growing workload.
What are your plans for the future?
Our business plan is to grow through a mixture of acquisitions and organic growth, we are currently going through an exciting growth phase of buying other recruitment agencies.
What have been your proudest moments?
We have a few that stand out as proud moments, but the help we offered to the Ukrainians who were settling is possibly our proudest.
Through our relationships with the local authority, job centre, and employment hubs, Abatec was aware that 1000 Ukrainians had or were about to settle in the local area. After engaging with many Ukraine nationals, it was apparent that whilst many were keen to work, most were struggling to find employment due to having little or no English-speaking ability.
Abatec decided to directly employ 2 English-speaking Ukrainians, with the aim to connect to the local Ukraine community, offer employment support, and be on-hand to answer any questions by translating and helping settle in the area.
With the support of the wider company, we were able to help 40 Ukrainians to work.
To find out more about Abatec and the vital work that they do for the region, please visit www.abatec.co.uk
