The story
On 10 November 1959, Blue Arrow (then named 'The Barnet Agency Ltd' and founded by Sheila Birch) was incorporated. On 12 October 1982, the company name was changed to 'Blue Arrow Personnel Services Ltd' and then finally to 'Blue Arrow Ltd' on 28 June 2000.
The company became listed on the Unlisted Securities Market in 1984. In June 1987, Blue Arrow acquired Manpower Inc., which was then the world's largest temporary employment agency, for $1.3bn.
In 1987, Blue Arrow was at the centre of a financial scandal when employees of National Westminster Bank's investment arm, County NatWest, covered up a failed issue of £873m of new stock (intended to finance the takeover of Manpower Inc.). Blue Arrow was cleared of any wrongdoing. In 1989, Tony Berry stepped down as CEO.
On 17 April 1996, the company was acquired by The Corporate Services Group plc. On 7 May 2008, the Corporate Services Group plc merged with Carlisle Group Limited to form one of the UK's largest recruitment groups, Impellam.
On 30 January 2023 Impellam Group plc announced that it would sell its Regional Specialist Staffing and Healthcare Staffing
businesses (Medacs Global Group, Blue Arrow Group, Tate, Chadwick Nott and Career Teachers) to Twenty 20 Capital. On 3 March 2023, the disposal of the businesses to Twenty 20 Capital was completed, and RSS Global Ltd was formed.
From Wikipedia’s article on Blue Arrow, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4