How a movie inspired Lewis and Molly ’ s recruitment journey
RECRUITMENT
HIGH
ACHIEVERS
Team game - Molly Teasdale ( third right ) and Lewis Clennell ( second right ) with team members , from left : Jana Kocevska , Emily Adair , Adam Campbell and Andrew Bell .
PICTURES : TOM BANKS WORDS : DAVE ROBSON
How a movie inspired Lewis and Molly ’ s recruitment journey
The best ideas can come in the most unexpected moments . After several successful years in hotel management , but keen to explore other career options , Lewis Clennell settled down to watch a movie – A Family Man with Gerard Butler .
In the film , Butler plays a headhunter who learns to appreciate what ’ s important in life . And that ’ s how Achieve Hospitality – a Middlesbrough-based , top-end recruitment agency for executive-level private households and luxury hospitality – was born .
Sitting in the firm ’ s modern , welcoming office in Middlesbrough , Lewis , from Newton Aycliffe , explained : “ I was in hotel general management but , at 23 , I felt I ’ d gone as far as I could .
“ I ’ d reached the highest point of my career in hospitality and I was ready for a change but still wanted to do something within the industry .
“ I ’ d never really worked in recruitment but after I watched A Family Man , that night I Googled ‘ how to set up a recruitment agency ’ – and that ’ s how it began .”
Joined by professional and personal partner Molly Teasdale , who he met while they both worked at the old Jury ’ s Inn in Middlesbrough , they successfully set about recruiting for the luxury hospitality sector and within just a few months of starting in September 2019 , they had £ 750,000 worth of business on the books . And then along came Covid . Lewis recalls : “ We were in London in February 2020 and people started hearing about Covid a lot more . We made a few placements and then in March , as we sat in a hotel in Saltburn , Boris Johnson went on TV and closed hospitality .
“ The next day , we lost everything . We ’ d been working with 12 to 15 clients and every one of them pulled out . We didn ’ t turn over anything from that day until February 2021 , when we started up again .”
Luckily , Lewis was still employed at a hotel and Molly was studying for a Masters degree in international business management at Teesside University , as well as being pregnant with baby son Ezra , born in April 2021 .
And when the time came to relaunch their business , allowing Lewis to devote himself to it full-time and Molly to put what she ’ d learned into practice , a shift of focus into the private household and ultra-high-net-worth market proved a masterstroke .
Lewis explained : “ The hospitality sector still
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