Recruitment to recruitment firm Heywood Associates has announced that it is to close its regional office network across the UK.

The company, which previously had offices in Birmingham, Manchester, Windsor, Bristol and St Albans, aims to create a nationwide ‘supercentre’ based in London.

Managing director Simon Gee was keen to explain the thinking behind his new strategy: ‘While many companies are panicking and simply closing branches in an effort to cut costs, we’ve taken the opportunity to listen to client and candidate needs in an effort to enhance services and improve existing lines of communication. As a result we have invested in state of the art IT and telecoms technology to ensure our consultants deliver a truly efficient professional recruitment service,’ he said.

The restructuring has meant some job losses, but newly promoted operations director Penny Lawrence maintained that the company remains committed to long-term growth.

‘Creating an agile and responsive organisational structure is the key to improving client and candidate relations. While we were sorry to say goodbye to a small number of the team, our main priority is to remain focused on client and candidate needs,’ she said.