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HomeOur story

Our story

In the early 1960s, Reed pioneered specialist recruitment in the UK. Seven decades on, we have become the world’s largest family-run recruitment business, with offices spanning across the UK, Europe, USA, the Middle East and East Asia.


With access to the UK’s largest candidate database and expertise across 20 specialist sectors, we are committed to ensuring that people are at the heart of everything we do to ensure we fulfil our purpose: improving lives through work.

Our story

The history of Reed

Humble beginnings

1960

Humble beginnings

Reed was founded on 7 May 1960, with the first office located on Kingsley Road, Hounslow, in West London. In the early 1960’s we pioneered specialist recruitment services; a move that fundamentally changed the UK recruitment market.

Business School

1972

Educate to accumulate

Sir Alec Reed founded the Reed Business School in the Cotswolds to provide a learning centre for Reed co-members, as well as residential courses for accountancy students. The Reed Business School has been listed as one of the most beautiful places to study in the world.

Ethiopiaid

1988

Building the foundation

Set up by our founder Sir Alec Reed, the Reed Foundation aims to give back to local, national, and international communities. Each year it supports a wide variety of charities across various sectors and has donated more than £9.5m over the past 10 years.

Woman using laptop

1995

Online revolution

Reed became the first branch-based recruitment firm in the UK to have a presence on the internet. Reed.co.uk is the UK’s number one digital recruitment service, being used by 85% of the UK’s top 100 recruitment firms.

Two women using a laptop

1996

Reed Learning

In 1996, Reed Learning became one of the UK’s leading business training providers. It was the first provider to launch green learning courses, become an exclusive training partner to Google and winner of several national training awards. Now, Reed.co.uk is home to thousands of online learning courses.

Two men using computer

1998

Welfare to work

Established in 1998, Reed in Partnership was one of the first employment support service providers in the UK, with a single office in Hackney. Today, Reed in Partnership offers services throughout the UK, fulfilling its mission: to positively transform people’s lives and their communities.

The Big Give

2007

The Big Give

The Big Give is a non-profit, match funding platform that allows charities to double donations from supporters. Since its launch in 2007, it has raised over £156 million for thousands of great causes through the power of match funding.

Reed global

2008

Reed goes global

In 2008 the organic growth of Reed, meant taking our family values global. For the first time ever, we opened international Reed offices in Turkey, Malta, Czech Republic, Hungary and South Korea.

60 years and counting

2020

60 years and counting

In May 2020 Reed turned 60 years old. With 60 years under our belt and many more to go, we continue to lead the way with the best recruitment solutions and comprehensive industry knowledge. Over the last seven decades, Reed has organically grown to become one of the world’s largest recruitment powerhouses, having built an incredibly strong team of over 3,400 co-members across a number of locations.

FPL

2021

Reed Franchise Partnerships

In 2021 we launched our latest venture. Reed Franchise Partnerships' purpose is to share knowledge and experience with partners further afield. With the help of our experienced team members, our new international partners are starting out on recruitment journeys which we hope are as long and fruitful as Reed’s.

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