A Dereham-based recruitment firm which specialises in the engineering sector has completed a successful first six months in business with almost 1000 candidates on its register.

GRAND CLIENT LIST: A Dereham-based recruitment firm that specialises in the engineering sector has completed a successful first six months in business with almost 1,000 candidates on its register.

Cowper Recruitment was started by Barry Gough in July. He came from the logistics supply chain and was encountering problems in recruiting the staff he wanted - so he decided to launch the enterprise.

There are now five staff at Cowper, including Colin King (left in picture) and engineer Andrew Watton (right).

Mr Watton said Norfolk was a hotbed for engineering, with hundreds of small businesses.

Cowper has an "upper-double-figures" number of vacancies and says leisure, food and general engineering are faring particularly well despite the recession.

Mr Watton said: "There are definitely areas which are buoyant and with a good level of confidence for the future, and they have vacancies to prove that. Also, the quality of candidates has greatly increased."