Welcome to The AD Way, a new series that explores how we help our clients, whether they’re simply looking to improve their recruitment pipeline or undergo a larger, specialised recruitment project.
Introducing Hilltop Food Group
The Brief
We started working with Hilltop Food Group when their long-standing Finance Director retired after seven years at the company, prompting a search for their replacement.
After Scott Davies, Executive Chairman at Hilltop Food Group, reached out to the company’s bank Santander for support, they suggested working with the team here at AD Finance to help make the search easier.
As a self-described rural business based in Newtown, Mid Wales, Hilltop were initially concerned at their chances of finding the right talent and fit for their business, which was a key aspect of the brief delivered to our project lead, Nick Singh.
The Project
The wider project was entirely run by Nick Singh, Director, who worked closely with both Scott from Hilltop and Mal Powar, the Regional Director at Santander Corporate Banking.
During the recruitment process, it was key to find an FD that could not only handle the pressure of working in a fast-paced, global environment but could adapt to the industry and how Hilltop operated.
As you’d imagine, it was key during the process to be as transparent as possible, especially as the role attracted a huge number of potential candidates.
This is where Nick’s broader network and understanding of not only the market, but the role itself, became vital.
As always, every meeting we had with both candidate and client was performed face-to-face, which fostered ongoing communication and allowed us to truly understand potential matches based on culture.
In the end, we found the perfect person the role, Mohammed Sheikh, a finance professional that has worked with AD Finance several times in the past as we’ve supported him throughout his career.
Scott had this to say regarding the project:
“Nick’s been phenomenal in this process… In learning what we needed, what the business was trying to achieve and yeah, the process was very good. (It was) very transparent, we had a lot of good candidates, regular updates on where we at in that process so couldn’t really ask for more.”