Case StudyClient Success

Ten hires. One platform. Zero agency fees.

How SearcHive helped Forterro build its finance function at pace as the business scaled rapidly across Europe.

We were growing fast and the finance team had to keep pace. I needed to hire quickly, see the very best people available, and know that every candidate genuinely fitted what we were building. SearcHive delivered on all three. Ten hires across the team, a tight brief respected every time, and a process that never slowed us down. It is the only way I want to hire.

Jack MacareeFinance Director, Forterro

10Hires made

1Platform, one subscription

0Agency fees paid

100%Brief matched every time

The Client

Forterro

Forterro is a category-leading provider of ERP software for the industrial mid-market, serving over 25,000 customers across Europe and growing. Founded in 2012 and backed by Partners Group, the business has scaled aggressively through organic growth and a consistent acquisition strategy, adding brands, geographies and customers at a pace that places enormous demand on the finance function to keep up.

With revenue now in excess of $300 million and operations spanning more than 40 office locations, Forterro is not a business that can afford a finance team that lags behind the rest of the organisation. As the company grew, so did the need: more hires, faster, without letting standards slip.

The Challenge

Scaling a finance function inside a fast-moving PE-backed business.

When a business grows as quickly as Forterro, the finance function is never standing still. Each acquisition, each new geography, each product line adds complexity, reporting requirements and headcount need. Jack Macaree needed to build a team that could operate at that pace, and he needed candidates who understood the demands of a PE-backed environment: rigorous on the numbers, fast on their feet, and able to work in a business where expectations are high and the pace is relentless.

The brief was always tight. Not because the requirements were unreasonable, but because there was no margin for hiring someone who was nearly right. In a business moving this fast, the wrong hire in the finance team is felt immediately.

Traditional recruitment agencies weren't built for this. Contingency models incentivise volume, not fit. Long-lists waste time. And repeated placement fees across ten hires would have represented a significant and unnecessary cost. Forterro needed a better model.

“A tight brief is a sign of a clear-thinking client. When someone knows exactly who they need, the platform can do what it was built to do: find them.”

Catherine Turner, Founder, SearcHive

How It Worked

The same high standard, ten times over.

SearcHive was engaged as Forterro's finance recruitment platform across a sustained period of growth. Rather than treating each hire as a standalone transaction, the platform built an understanding of the business, its culture, its pace and its finance leadership requirements that deepened with every appointment.

Each role began with a brief. Each brief was specific. SearcHive's network of senior finance professionals was searched with precision, not volume, drawing on a curated community of candidates built over decades of senior finance recruitment. Candidates presented were always shortlisted, always assessed, and always genuinely interested before they were put in front of Forterro's hiring team.

The result was a process that respected Jack's time. No long-lists to wade through. No unsuitable candidates taking up interview slots. Just a tight, well-prepared shortlist of people who could actually do the role, at the level Forterro needed, in the environment Forterro operated in.

That consistency held across all ten hires.

The Shortlist Standard

Every candidate presented was worth interviewing.

Across ten appointments, the same standard applied. SearcHive's shortlists for Forterro were built on three principles that any growing business should expect from its recruitment partner:

Speed Without Compromise

A growing business cannot wait. Each shortlist was delivered quickly, drawn from an active network of finance professionals who were known, assessed and ready, not sourced from scratch each time.

Brief Respected Every Time

A tight brief was treated as a precise instruction, not a starting point for negotiation. If the role required a specific background, experience level or working style, only candidates who genuinely matched were presented.

Built for PE Environments

Forterro's finance team operates inside a demanding, high-growth PE-backed business. Every candidate was assessed for their ability to perform in that environment, not just their CV credentials.

The Result

Ten hires. One subscription. A finance team built for growth.

Across its period of rapid expansion, Forterro appointed ten members of its finance function through SearcHive, on a single flat-fee subscription. No placement fees, no percentage of salary, no negotiating costs on each individual hire. The more Forterro grew, the better the value of the model became.

More importantly, the team was built well. Each hire was right for the business, right for the pace, and right for the brief. That is what SearcHive is built to deliver, consistently, however many times it is needed.