Trish Stratford, former COO of Blue Arrow and former MD of Celsian Education, Health and Social Care, has bought education, housing and social care recruiter QSG with the backing of private equity investor Hamilton Bradshaw.

The business will be relaunched with a new brand and new identity, Sagitta Recruitment, from 6 July. The acquisition allows Stratford to develop the business through both targeted organic growth and selective acquisitions.

Sagitta will initially focus on the education, social care and social housing sectors, but will look to expand its sector and geographical coverage in the medium term.

Stratford says: “We wish to retain a focus on our target markets, but one of our key objectives is to meet the collective recruitment needs of our customers, irrespective of sector.

“While a rebranding so soon after an acquisition of this nature is a little unusual, we felt it was crucial for the business and its employees to have a clean break from the past and provide a fresh face to our clients. 

“I am particularly excited for our consultants: through this deal they will have the opportunity to thrive in a more dynamic environment that will offer better career development, training, new management positions and an opportunity to make generate real value for themselves through our new incentive scheme.”