Berkeley Scott's two main shareholders have outlined to Recruiter how they hope to return the company to its "glory days" after it "lost its way".

Tony Reeves and John Bowmer, formerly of HotGroup and Adecco respectively, jointly acquired a 62.6% stake in the hospitality recruiter firm earlier this year (Recruiter, 10 January).

Reeves said the company had tried to extend itself into areas beyond its core skills and had "lost its way". This included starting up a "solutions" business, which it will now have to sell. The solutions business was a product sold to human resources departments to keep track of staff. It had relied on another company's software, Reeves said. They said the sale would not generate significant revenue.

Reeves and Bowmer have stressed that they will use Berkeley Scott as a vehicle to acquire other recruitment firms. They told Recruiter they were looking at possible acquisitions in IT, engineering, and accounting and finance. But Bowmer said it may take some time for a deal to come through. "You can almost spend too much time on possible deals," he said. They might also consider going into recruitment process outsourcing.

John Rose, formerly of Hudson UK, has joined the company as chief executive this month. Reeves said Rose would be conducting a review of the firm's operations, and whether its 10 regional branches were in the right places. "We want to have 10 people at a branch, not two," they said. The company will move its headquarters from Godalming, Surrey, to London in the next few weeks.

The duo spent £2.5m on the 62.6% stake, which is now worth about £6.5m.