For us, partnership is about people working effectively together - a simple principle easily forgotten.
Through true collaboration and genuine openness, we are able to create and deliver the most appropriate solution to your situation. We focus on the 'situation' - because no matter how long we might have been working with a client or candidate, their needs develop and market conditions change.
Positive interrogation is at the heart of our service offering, encouraging a fresh perspective by asking challenging questions. We are thorough in our approach without being intrusive. We do demand access to the key decision makers and we will ask questions that others may shy away from. But this is what makes us different. This is what helps us deliver better results every time.
For me it's about the lifetime of experience and relationship building combined with Steve's long term approach to recruitment that counts. We’ve known each other and worked together for over 20 years and every time recruitment is mentioned Steve is top of mind as one of the UK’s prominent FMCG recruiters and trusted advisors when it comes to judging people. He is very well networked with the best candidates and his business is without doubt a serious player in recruitment.
Steve knows the UK Talent Pool, like no other. He engaged with us quickly, showed us an energy and agility to make things happen at pace – all of which we needed to create an entire team from scratch. Steve is refreshingly different to his counterparts within the recruitment community. He is not afraid to challenge preconceptions...
It was critically important that our recruitment partner really understood our business needs, culture and values. The Simmance Partnership's credentials were second to none in this area.
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In July 2014 we acquired SlimFast from Unilever without any human capital. We quickly needed to engage the services of a reputable UK FMCG Executive recruitment organisation and during our search The Simmance Partnership was the name repeatedly recommended to us.
No sooner had we met Steve we realised we were in capable and experienced hands. From the very outset, Steve demonstrated he knows the UK Talent Pool, like no other. He engaged with us quickly, showed us an energy and agility to make things happen at pace – all of which we needed to create an entire team from scratch. Steve is refreshingly different to his counterparts within the recruitment community. He is not afraid to challenge preconceptions, and we have been singularly impressed by his profound knowledge as he has pioneered our recruitment journey and attracted and landed a top Executive Leadership Team and their reports, those who may not have ordinarily considered our start up opportunity in the UK as a leading US Private Equity enterprise.
Thanks to Steve and his team, their profound knowledge of the FMCG market, and a relentless determination to succeed as a ‘Founding Partner’ we have been up and running in record time.
Thank you Steve and your team . . . a great job, perfectly executed!
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The Simmance Partnership has become a highly trusted and long term recruitment partner for Philips. What stands them apart is their understanding of the requirements we have as a business. This comes from Steve and his team looking beyond a brief, asking questions that really help understand who will be the best candidate for the role in the long term and most importantly if that person has both the personality and experience that we seek.
We have been delighted with the candidates we have recruited through The SImmance Partnership and look forward to continuing to work with them.
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Steve and the team at The Simmance Partnership have a deep and detailed knowledge of the drinks industry in the UK and this provided us with a significant advantage in finding the right candidates. From the very first moment we started the search process to completing and agreeing for the new person to join - Steve and his team were always offering value and insight that helped us make the correct decisions.
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In a market as challenging as ours, getting the right team capability is arguably my most critical strategic challenge. Steve takes the time to understand and build on our recruitment briefs and objectives. Having worked with Steve both as a client and a candidate, he carefully balances the need to find strong cultural fit as well as basic functional capability, and he is not afraid to challenge and probe to ensure a good fit. In a world of grey, he adds colour. Having worked with Steve for over 20 years, I can thoroughly recommend his approach and value add.
So, you can be sure that we will delve deeper than most, get to know you better, ask searching questions and challenge the status quo. But crucially, our approach will never hold things up. We know that recruitment can sometimes be one of the most frustrating experiences for a business and sometimes one of the most painful.
We always act quickly, we always strive to make the experience enjoyable and we always deliver results.
Above all, we are proud of what we do.
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The Simmance Partnership has guided us through recruitment projects offering a cocktail of insight, inspiration and motivation. Steve is, of course, successful in managing the fundamentals of recruitment and when that is combined with his wide knowledge of our world and his great contacts, it gives him an edge
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Having worked with many search partners over the years as both a hirer and a candidate, I can wholeheartedly endorse The Simmance Partnership. Steve and his team always endeavour to experience the culture of the organisation that they are in partnership with first-hand by spending many hours immersed in the business to get a true reflection of the opportunities, capabilities and challenges that the organisation faces, which is invaluable insight for both recruiter and candidate! From early stage approach through to final offer.
I have found The Simmance Partnership to be of utmost professionalism, honest, open and 'real'. Real people, searching for the best, with the best!
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The Simmance Partnership and I have worked together on and off for over 15 years and I will always have them on my preferred supplier list no matter which company I am working for.
The fact that they are small means that you basically get Steve running every search himself and that’s great as Steve is a fantastic recruiter. Over the years Steve has recruited roles for me in various functions and sectors and always delivers.
Important for me is that Steve and the team are always fun to work with and I treat them as part of my extended HR team.
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The Simmance Partnership provided us with a thorough and detailed market search on a challenging brief. The insight provided throughout the search allowed us to make important tactical decisions and structural changes that ultimately secured us some highly regarded talent.
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The Simmance Partnership has become a valued and long term recruitment partner to Freixenet UK. They consistently provide candidates who are the right fit. Steve and his team are able to achieve this through their understanding of our business and people combined with their own recruitment intuition.
The Simmance Partnership don’t just take a brief, they are able and willing to challenge our thinking with the intention of ensuring we get what we really want. Everyone who has joined Freixenet via The Simmance Partnership has both performed and integrated well.
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I have been delighted with the service and partnership which has been established between The Simmance Partnership and the global CPG Companies which I have been fortunate to work for. Their recruitment managers, through strong engagement and empathy, have been able to grasp not only the skills and capabilities which our vacancies require, but also the very important cultural fit which candidates need to have.
At the end of the day the real proof is in the candidates sustainable performance after they have been appointed and I am delighted that I have experienced a 100% success rate with the numerous quality appointments which we have made over a long period of time. I would highly recommend the search and recruitment of high calibre sales and marketing managers through The Simmance Partnership
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The SHS Group, a privately owned business with two shareholding families, appointed The Simmance Partnership to manage the recruitment process for a Group CEO role. This was a highly strategic appointment for us and it was critically important that our recruitment partner really understood our business needs, culture and values. Simmance’s credentials were second to none in this area.
Steve kept us informed throughout all the various stages of the process - selection, filtering and screening of candidates. The shortlist all held the competencies and skills required. Through The Simmance Partnership we made an offer, which was accepted, and our new appointment should deliver our future growth plans and she also embodies the values and culture of the Group.
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We have worked with The Simmance Partnership for three years on a number of assignments across a range of functions, and different levels of seniority. Steve has taken the time to understand our business and each specific brief to provide a good selection of candidates through his extensive network and industry knowledge, with many of these successful hires still part of our team.
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Working with Steve and his team was a completely different experience to any other recruiters: not only, it felt, were they on my side representing my best interests, but also sharing his/their significant knowledge about the prospective employers, so I could be very focussed on my positioning and messaging at every meeting.
The personal involvement and support was there throughout the process, all the way through negotiations to post-appointment. It really puts being the ‘valued candidate’ back on the map of recruitment!
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For me it's about the lifetime of experience and relationship building combined with Steve's long term approach to recruitment that counts.
We’ve known each other and worked together for over 20 years and every time recruitment is mentioned Steve is top of mind as one of the UK’s prominent FMCG recruiters and trusted advisors when it comes to judging people. He is very well networked with the best candidates and his business is without doubt a serious player in recruitment.
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Steve and his team are incredibly thorough, rigorous and precise in all they do, ensuring that the candidate brief is accurate and detailed. This ensures that at all stages the recruitment process is methodical and efficient for both client and candidate as ultimately his reputation is at stake at all times.
From the detail and accuracy in the reports he produces on the candidates, through to the feedback that is provided, Steve and his team ensure that we will find the right candidate each time and not have to make compromises or second guess suitability for the role.
Guided by the candid approach of Steve Simmance, who has been an FMCG recruiter for over 25 years, we provide a true counterbalance to the norm, encouraging transparency and reality, factors so often missing in our industry today.