Fusion Associates

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Fusion celebrates 20 years connecting talent

Starting from a small office in Soho London the business began with a focus on fashion retail, hiring retail management for new London store openings including DeBeers, Louis Vuitton, Loro Piana, Alexander McQueen, Mandarina Duck, Levis and many others. 

Founder and CEO Alex Pescott tells the story.

Over the years we diversified from retail into wholesale, marketing, head office and creative appointments. At this time we moved to larger offices in Soho with a beautiful roof terrace with views over central London.  Our Buying & Merchandising Division grew rapidly, appointing head buyers & merchandisers for Urban Outfitters, TKMaxx, Dockers, Ralph Lauren, Nike.

In 2007 we began our international strategy which we still pursue today.  We hired consultants in New York and Stockholm to represent us then opened small offices in Berlin and Milan to get closer to our clients and better understand the local markets. 

Our trade fair attendance over the years has taken us all around Europe and the USA in pursuit of expanding our network and understanding the business better.  We have fond memories of attending the larger than life Bread & Butter shows in Barcelona & Berlin and we've always enjoyed Pitti Uomo in Florence and ISPO Munich. Everyone in the team remembers late nights at the Gilli bar in Florence and the Scandinavian parties at ISPO!

'Breathing the air' of our clients has also been important to us to help us understand their cultural fit and their needs, and over the years we've driven thousands of miles on road trips visiting our clients in California, New York, across Europe and Asia. 

Unsurprisingly with all this effort, our international client portfolio grew quickly to include Patagonia, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren,Thule, Amer Sports, Jack Wolfskin, Bottega Veneta, Peak Performance, Day Birger, ASICS and many others.

In 2013 with the increased popularity of internal Talent Acquisition teams within organisations, we took the decision to focus on senior, complex and/or confidential positions so that we could assist our clients on the more challenging hire requirements that they may struggle to fill internally through their own TA teams.

We also took the decision to re-centralise our European subsidiaries back to the UK, while at the same time expanded our Global Reach with the appointment of strategic search partners in North America, Asia and Scandinavia. This provided us the capability to leverage our own network with that of our search partners to provide our clients with a truly global service on both domestic and international searches.

Recruitment needs change over time, we have assisted our clients in transitioning towards an increasingly digital driven world, complementing existing skills sets within the organisation with new ones, from DTC specialists to Retail Experience Managers, Social Media Marketers and Innovation specialists ... whatever the need we are there to consult and help appoint an experienced professional. Our Track Record of enduring successful partnerships with our clients and candidates, speaks to our commitment, passion and knowledge of an industry we at Fusion love.

If you would like to find out how we can help your business please get in touch.