Situation
Over the past few years, the UK has seen a fundamental shift in how businesses think about talent acquisition. More organisations are recognising the strategic advantages of hiring South African professionals—driven by a favourable exchange rate, strong English language proficiency, cultural alignment, and minimal time zone difference. As demand for high-quality, cost-effective capability has grown, South Africa has emerged as a natural extension of the UK workforce, offering both operational efficiency and immediate scalability.
For Eden Brown, internal functions such as marketing, finance, and in-house recruitment were becoming more expensive to scale locally. The business needed a better way to grow sustainably while maintaining high quality and operational resilience.
In April 2024, nGAGE acquired a South African company with a clear vision: tap into a highly skilled, established market offering world-class talent at a lower cost, and build capability that could directly support Eden Brown’s long-term growth.
Instead of simply promoting offshoring to clients, Eden Brown chose to model it first — investing in its own teams in South Africa to prove the value of the approach first-hand.
Solution
Eden Brown established an offshore team in South Africa, expanding both part of its back-office and revenue-generating functions.
Back-office support built in South Africa included:
- Marketing
- Finance
- In-house recruitment
- Management support
Front-line capability:
Eden Brown also hired and trained a growing team of South African recruitment consultants—five and counting—who work seamlessly with UK teams while bringing fresh energy, strong skill sets, and cost-efficiency.
With feet on the ground in South Africa, Eden Brown gained first-hand insight into the talent landscape, operational realities, and cultural nuances—making the offshoring model something they could authentically deliver, not just sell.
Outcome
The offshoring initiative has become a strategic growth engine for Eden Brown. Productivity has increased, operating costs have reduced, and the business now has scalable capacity across both back-office and recruitment operations. On average, Eden Brown is achieving approximately 40 percent cost savings per offshored employee, without compromising on quality or capability.
Most importantly, the model has been validated internally before being rolled out to clients—strengthening trust and credibility in every offshoring conversation.
Eden Brown’s Managing Director, Tom Kitson, sums it up: “I continue to be impressed with the skill and quality of the new South African recruitment consultants, and I have complete faith in the offshoring model we are selling—because we are trialling it first-hand.”
Eden Brown Built Environment is now a living example of what offshoring can achieve: sustainable growth, high-quality output, and a team structure designed for the future.