Search firms launch Taplow Group

The owner-managed firms cover a wide range of industry disciplines including recruitment and management assessment in the financial services industry.

Mark Firth, the managing director of the Firth Davies Consultancy in London, which is one of the firms in the group, said: 'Search firms are increasingly being asked to conduct cross-border assignments. We found clients beginning to question whether, as individual firms, we could really handle a local search in Germany or Spain or France.

"The consortium allows us to retain our independence but come together as a group.'

The Taplow Group offers expertise in financial services through its headquarters in Luxembourg, where search firm Rowlands International operates in accounting, banking and finance. In Paris, Richelieu Consultants and in New York The Governance Group also offer expertise in financial services.

Firth said the consortium was in talks to bring in a Hong Kong-based financial services search firm.