By Chris Story

Last updated at 16:18, Friday, 06 January 2012

Carlisle company H&H Group today revealed it is starting a recruitment drive after growing further.

The farming-led firm, which has its headquarters at the city’s Borderway Mart, is broadening its land division after acquiring another business in the North East.

And the company, currently trading as H&H Bowe, has been rebranded H&H Land and Property.

It is to open an office at Aykley Head, just north of Durham, in a base incorporating the Nicholson and Weston chartered surveyors’ firm H&H has acquired.

The move was announced as the company revealed it is to start what is thought to be one of the biggest rural recruitment drives for some time, taking on 10 new members of staff for its new-look land business.

The new North East operation will be headed by director David Quayle. Apart from the change in name, there will be no other difference to the services offered by the company and the 30 staff employed on the land side at Rosehill in Carlisle will remain there.

H&H Bowe has operated as part of the wider H&H Group – which now has interests stretching from auctioneering to printing – since 1999. H&H’s land business, first established more than 100 years ago, is one of the oldest in the North West.

Group chairman Alan Bowe said: “This is a great opportunity for us and represents an evolution of services, not a revolution.

“As a company, we have strong traditional values combined with ambition and, due to increased demands, the time is right for us to grow and evolve.

“What we are doing is building on the success of the multiple traditional and specialist service offering that we have introduced, and it will meet the needs of our ever-increasing client base across the North East.”

Within the firm’s land team already are conservation experts, environmental, woodland and common land specialists, a chartered town planner, a farm business advisor and Scottish and English property specialists.

H&H Land and Property hopes to strengthen its position in the North East quickly and says the new recruits now being sought will be integral to its success there.

On the new jobs, Mr Quayle, who worked with Nicholson and Weston for 30 years, said: “Some of the positions require specific qualifications and have a minimum criteria, but there are also positions where, through in-house training and development, we can support a chosen career path to help individuals reach their potential.

“We are looking for people who not only have the necessary qualifications, but who also have drive, ambition and the highest levels of traditional values.”

Expansion in H&H’s land division has been announced just a fortnight after it emerged that H&H Reeds Printers, of Penrith, will open a new base in Carlisle this month

Both developments come amid continued growth for the group, which recently announced profits of £1.21m. In the last three years, its workforce has grown from 160 to 245.

Details on the H&H Land and Property jobs can be found at www.hhland.co.uk

First published at 14:09, Friday, 06 January 2012
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk