PORTSMOUTH, UK. August 27th, 2026 – Portsmouth-based recruitment consultancy ARM is celebrating 30 years in business, reaching the milestone after three decades of helping organisations across the UK and international markets attract and secure specialist talent through changing economic conditions, industries and recruitment practices.
From the telephone and email-led recruitment of the 1990s to LinkedIn, messaging platforms and AI, ARM has continually adapted to major shifts in how organisations identify and hire specialist professionals.
Established by Paul Huntingdon in 1996, Advanced Resource Managers (ARM) began as a small Hampshire recruitment business and has since grown into a multidisciplinary specialist consultancy operating across the UK and internationally.
Over the past three decades, ARM has placed tens of thousands of professionals into permanent and contract roles, with placements reaching more than 50 countries. Its areas of expertise have also expanded, covering specialist markets across engineering, technology, manufacturing, transport and infrastructure, professional services, life sciences and other highly skilled sectors.
While recruitment methods and the industries ARM supports have changed significantly, the value of strong, lasting relationships with clients and candidates has remained central to the business throughout its history.
Chief Commercial Officer Leon Howgill joined ARM in 2000, when the company had around 12 employees.
He said: “The tools we use to find people and the markets we work in may have evolved, but recruitment is still fundamentally about relationships. We have clients whose history with ARM goes back decades, while there are candidates we’ve placed several times as they’ve progressed through their careers. Some have subsequently become senior decision-makers and clients themselves.
“That’s something you can only build over time, and I think it says a lot about what has sustained ARM for 30 years.”
ARM’s offering has developed alongside its specialist recruitment capabilities. Alongside permanent and contract recruitment, the business now delivers broader recruitment and outsourcing solutions for organisations with more complex or large-scale talent requirements.
Founder Paul Huntingdon said the 30th anniversary provided an opportunity to reflect not only on ARM’s growth, but also on the values that have shaped the company since its formation.
“When I started ARM, my ambition was to build a recruitment company that treated clients, candidates and its own people well,” he said.
“A great deal has changed since 1996, including the scale of the business and the industries we support, but I’ve always wanted ARM to retain the sense that people matter. Looking back after 30 years, I’m particularly proud of the careers we’ve helped develop, the organisations we’ve supported and the relationships our people have built along the way.”
Today, ARM continues to recruit across established and emerging specialist markets, with expertise spanning engineering, manufacturing and infrastructure through to cyber security, life sciences, AI and data centres.
Leon added: “Specialist recruitment never stands still because the skills organisations need don’t stand still. Our job is to keep developing our understanding of those markets while retaining the relationships and specialist knowledge that have brought us this far.
“Thirty years gives us a lot of history to draw on, but our focus is very much on what comes next.”
