KEY POINTS:
Trish McLean isn't a woman to buckle under pressure.
It's a trait that's seen her through some tough times. The year she set up her business, Retailworld Resourcing, she got breast cancer. The same year, her business partner sold out, leaving McLean, by then undergoing chemotherapy and breast reconstruction surgery, to run the fledgling business alone.
True to form, as well as recovering from the surgery, she easily found another business partner and the company has since carved out a lucrative niche, specialising in retail recruitment in New Zealand and Australia.
It will also open an office in London next year, a market McLean estimates will generate annual revenue of £5 million ($13.8 million) once the office is established.
McLean doesn't have a lot of time to feel pressure anyway. This year, the company launched a hospitality recruitment division in New Zealand and McLean has her ninth marathon to train for - well on the way to her goal of running 10 marathons before hitting 40.
The company, which McLean set up with friend and colleague Mandy Scotney in 2001, is New Zealand's only recruiter that specialises in shopfront and executive retail positions. Other local recruiters focus on disciplines such as finance, or sales and marketing.
Retail workers make up 20 per cent of New Zealand's workforce and, while no figures are available to measure market share, McLean reckons her company's offering is unique.
The move to Britain is timely. London doesn't lack retail outlets and a survey by British trade body the Recruitment & Employment Confederation shows that large-scale projects such as the proposed CrossRail rail system and the 2012 Olympic Games are expected to fuel the recruitment industry's growth.
Aligning the company with the retail industry has been a key to Retailworld's success, McLean says, particularly in the jam-packed Australian market where it now employs 40 people in four offices.
When it crossed the Tasman in 2004, it found the market was cluttered with retail recruitment specialists.
To stand out, the company copied its successful New Zealand strategy and got involved in promoting retail by organising career fairs and job expos, and offering to judge retail industry awards.
"Promoting retail endears you to the industry; you're showing that you're not just another recruitment company generating fees," says McLean.
This year, 60 per cent of Retailworld's turnover will come from Australia.
After successfully branding the company as a retail specialist, McLean was initially not keen to launch a hospitality division, fearing another offering would dilute the "specialist" brand. But the new division, Hospoworld, has been successful. She reckons it will lift company revenue by 30 per cent in the next two years.
McLean has also learned the value of a business partner. A "disastrous" two-year stint as a restaurateur left her vowing to never again go into business alone. Before establishing the Australian business she netted local retail whiz John Caldwell to become a joint-venture partner. He now runs Australian operations.
Her New Zealand business partner, Ben Harman, is also a shareholder.
"With a partnership, if you have a great idea, you can hash it round and make it bigger and happen faster. There's also someone to tell you to throw it out and not waste any more time on it."
When McLean and Scotney set up their business, they had to work hard to dispel the myth among jobseekers that retail is "behind the shop-counter work".
"We had to educate the market that 'retail' included buyers, general managers, financial controllers - high-paying, high-level responsibility jobs."
They also had to convince retailers, used to simply advertising available positions, that a recruitment agency could save time and money by presenting a short-list of candidates, saving them from having to do the screening themselves.
Retailworld, which employs 26 staff in its Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch offices, splits the retail sector into fashion, hardware, technology, leisure and supermarkets. Teams of staff are responsible for either shopfront or executive recruitment in those areas.
In 2004, McLean faced competition from her old business partner, when Scotney set up an Australian recruitment franchise in New Zealand.
Although the new player focused only on shopfront retail staff, McLean and then-business partner Mike Millar were forced to take Retailworld national sooner than they had intended in order to compete.
Despite that, McLean insists there's no ill feeling between her and Scotney.
One of the company's other strengths is its youthful enthusiasm - its Newmarket office walls are painted bright orange; the rooms are all named after planets. Only three employees are over 40, and while that's not by design, it's true that Generation Y gravitates towards the retail and recruitment industries.
The company's speedy growth means younger staff can get offered a lot of responsibility quite fast, McLean says.
For instance, the person who proposed the plan for Hospoworld was 23. And the company will work around such things as the inevitable Kiwi OE.
"We do quarterly reviews and try to be six months ahead of them - if they're going overseas or having kids we say, 'Great, let's plan for this together'. One of our staff members wants to go to the UK on her OE - she could help train the UK staff there when we set up our office."
McLean aims to have three more offices open in the next five years, in Canada, the United States and "somewhere in Asia", and says the company is even eyeing listing, but not for five to seven years.
The company's performance in Australia shows it has the legs to head offshore once more but McLean isn't cocky.
"[The British market] converts your turnover into pounds and then sort of crosses you off. Just because you're successful in Australasia, doesn't mean you have credibility. But we back ourselves."
She's not sure which marathon she'll take on next year, but is adamant that the 10th one will be China's Great Wall Marathon.
"You've got to keep it interesting to keep yourself motivated," she says.
A bit like business really.
Retailworld Resourcing
* Specialist recruitment agency for retail industry.
* Set up 2001.
* Branched out into hospitality industry this year.
* Has offices in NZ and Australia, and London office planned for next year.
* Longer-term goals include offices in North America and Asia.
