Welcome back to The Elephant Insight 🐘

Birthdays, Beaches & a Surprise from Across the Atlantic.

It's been a few months since our last edition and we have plenty to share. We forgot our own birthday, took the family to Costa Rica, had a transatlantic client land in our lap and somehow had one of our strongest periods in years. Oh, and there's a free giveaway early doors if you fancy one.

Here's what's in this edition:

🌍 The Comeback — what the numbers actually say about where Brellis is heading right now

🎁 Free Giveaway — our new pastel yellow memo books, first come first served

🦥 Pura Vida — two weeks in Costa Rica, three placements filled from a beach bar, and a very contented sloth

🎂 Better Late Than Never — we turned eight in March and didn't notice. Here's the story of how Brellis actually started

🎙️ A Podcast Worth Your Time — a new weekly listen we think you'll enjoy

If you've missed any of our previous editions you can catch up here: 👉 https://newsletter.brellisrecruitment.co.uk/

As always, thanks for reading.

1. The Comeback, the Holiday and the Transatlantic Partnership

Last year was, by our own admission, a quiet one. The kind of year where you find yourself double-checking the calendar to make sure it's actually a working day. The start of 2026 wasn't much louder, if we're being straight with you.

But something shifted in April. In the two months since, placements are up 7% on the same period last year, with revenue up 13%. Modest numbers, perhaps, but the direction of travel matters, and bearing in mind where we'd come from, it felt significant.

What's changed isn't just volume. The calibre of work coming through has moved. Average fees per placement are higher than they've been in a while, and the roles we're filling span everything from entry level through to senior and specialist hires. That breadth is something we're proud of, and it comes from clients at every level trusting us with roles that matter to their business.

Which brings us to June. We're writing this at the end of May, so the month is still ahead of us, but the pipeline going into it is the strongest we've seen this year. A significant portion of that activity is coming from a client relationship that stretches across the Atlantic, one that came to us through a business enquiry at the start of the year. There's something quietly amusing about a micro business from Leamington Spa becoming the hiring partner of a US company within a matter of months. We like to think it says something about the special relationship between our two nations. Mostly we think it says that good recruitment doesn't care about geography.

What makes it work, though, is the people on the ground. The site lead here in the UK gave Zoe and I the trust and the space to do what we do from the moment she got in touch earlier this year. The result? Not one, not two, not three, but four senior hires placed and counting. We don't take that trust lightly.

This feels like the year Brellis found its stride again. And if June delivers what it's shaping up to, we're not done yet.

Want One of Our New Memo Books?

For a while now, our little black memo books have been a bit of a thing. We've handed out more than we can count and people seem to genuinely like them.

So we've done something new. Same memo book, but this time in a pastel yellow. Fresh, different, and we think they look great.

We're giving away the first batch for free. Just click the link, and we'll do the rest.

Claim yours here

First come, first served.

Pura Vida: Two Weeks in Costa Rica

Earlier this year, the Breakwells swapped Leamington Spa for Costa Rica. Two weeks, four travellers, and an itinerary that covered more ground than we probably had any right to attempt.

We landed in San José and headed straight for Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast, arriving by road and boat through the jungle canals. Two nights at the lodge, spotting caimans from the water's edge and getting our first look at the wildlife Costa Rica is famous for. Sloths, as it turns out, are harder to find than you'd think, which made the morning dedicated to tracking them down in Arenal all the more satisfying when we finally did.

Arenal was a highlight. The volcano looming behind the town, zip-lining through the forest canopy, and the kind of landscape that makes you feel genuinely small in the best possible way. From there we crossed to Monteverde for the cloud forest, walking the hanging bridges above the treetops and spending a morning on a coffee, chocolate and sugar tour that genuinely changed how we think about breakfast. We also did a night walk through the Children's Eternal Forest, which was every bit as eerie and brilliant as it sounds.

The last four days were spent at Tamarindo on the Pacific coast. Sunsets over the water, cold drinks, and a slower pace after two weeks of early starts. Exactly what it sounds like.

We won't pretend we switched off entirely. With Joe holding things down back in the UK and a seven hour time difference that made early mornings surprisingly productive, three vacancies were filled while we were away. The laptop at the hotel bar may or may not have been involved.

Costa Rica is an extraordinary place. We came back tired, a little sun-kissed, and already planning the next one.

Pura Vida. ☕

Better Late Than Never — Happy Birthday Brellis (We're So Sorry)

On the 11th March 2026, Brellis Recruitment turned eight years old.

We didn't notice.

Not a card. Not a cake. Not even a cursory glance at the calendar. The day came and went like any other Tuesday, which in our defence was probably full of CVs, client calls and at least one person asking whether a candidate could start on two weeks' notice.

In mitigation, Matt would like to point out that forgetting birthdays is essentially a hereditary condition. His father, a man of many qualities, has never been entirely sure when his son's birthday is. To be fair to Matt, he's not much better with his own children. Ask him Bruce or Grace's date of birth in a doctor's surgery and you'll witness a man doing some very unconvincing mental arithmetic. The apple, as they say, does not fall far from the tree.

So how did Brellis actually begin? In November 2017, Matt had a disagreement with the MD at the company where he and Zoe both worked. He had, over the years, built the onsite division almost entirely from scratch, a business unit responsible for £20 million of revenue. Not bad for someone the MD apparently just didn't like very much. When Matt resigned, rather than doing anything sensible, like perhaps reflecting on the fact that the person they were letting walk out the door had personally built a £20 million division, they accepted his resignation without much hesitation.

Which, with hindsight, was their loss in the most spectacular possible way.

The next four months were spent quietly and deliberately planning what would become Brellis. When Zoe followed and handed in her notice, the response from the business was rather different. Suddenly there were counter offers, conversations, persuasion. Zoe's response was characteristically straightforward: she might consider staying, she said, but she'd also need a new husband thrown into the deal. The counteroffer was quietly withdrawn.

And so, on the 11th March 2018, Brellis was born.

Eight years. In those eight years we have survived a global pandemic that shut down the economy, a Prime Minister who lasted shorter than a lettuce, a cost of living crisis, a period where every candidate in the country simultaneously decided they wanted to work from home forever, and at least three moments where one or both of us wondered what on earth we were thinking.

We are still here. We are, quietly, thriving.

Over 800 placements. More than 150 client businesses. Roles filled across the length and breadth of the country, from our heartland in Warwickshire and Oxfordshire, to further across the UK and even internationally over the Irish Sea. Boardrooms, customer service desks and corner offices. Not bad for a business born out of a disagreement and four months of careful planning at a kitchen table.

We may have forgotten to mark the occasion. But eight years in, Brellis is in the best shape it has ever been and that feels like the best birthday present we could have given ourselves, even if we forgot to wrap it.

Here's to year nine. We'll try to remember.

Matt & Zoe

A Podcast Worth Your Time

I listen to a lot of podcasts. Comedy, science, politics, they're a staple of most of my working week. So when I say I've found a new regular listen, it's against some decent competition.

Business Growth Central with The Botterills has earned its place in the rotation. Hosted by Nigel, Cameron and Elliott Botterill, the father and sons trio behind Entrepreneur's Circle, it covers the kind of topics that actually matter to people running or growing a business. Marketing, websites, email engagement, recruitment, how to stop yourself becoming the bottleneck in your own company. What makes it work is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. There's genuine insight in there, but it's delivered with enough humour, and the occasional family disagreement, to make it an enjoyable listen rather than a lecture.

It's not just for business owners either. If you work in management, operations or business development, there's plenty here that's relevant to you.

A couple of episodes worth starting with. The prioritisation episode is a good one, covering how to decide what actually matters in your business and stop getting pulled into low-impact tasks. And if you're new to the podcast, the rapid-fire Q&A episode is a great way in, covering everything from when to raise your prices to how to respond when a competitor undercuts you.

Search for Business Growth Central wherever you get your podcasts.

That's everything for this edition.

As always, if you're thinking about hiring, or just want to talk through what's happening in the market, my door is open. And if you want a yellow memo book, click the link before they're gone.

Until next time.

Matt & The Brellis Team 🐘🐘🐘