Reed was founded on May 7th 1960 when Alec Reed, then aged 26, opened the first Reed branch in Hounslow, West London. He started with just £75 and worked alone for a year. Since then the company has grown organically into one of the UK's largest private businesses with over 3,000 employees and 300 branches worldwide.

In the early 1960s Reed pioneered specialist recruitment services, a move which fundamentally changed the UK recruitment market. Today, with over 20 specialist recruitment divisions, the provision of temporary and permanent staff remains a core focus for Reed. In addition to this Reed has also expanded its service offering to encompass the provision of training, HR outsourcing and Welfare to Work services.  More details about the individual companies that make up the Reed family of companies can be found below.

Underpinning many of these achievements is Reed's leading position online. reed.co.uk was established in 1995 and has since become the UK’s leading commercial jobsite, featuring over 150,000 live jobs online.  The integration of Reed's online and physical presence has resulted in a database of over three million jobseekers registered online and through the branch network. 

There are now four separate Reed companies, each focusing on a different market:

Reed Specialist Recruitment is a specialist provider of permanent, contract, temporary and outsourced recruitment solutions, IT and HR consulting. This includes all of the high-street branches that Reed has across the UK and Ireland, as well as the specialist offices that cover our large-volume recruitment contracts.  Another aspect of Reed Specialist Recruitment is Reed international, which provides Reed with global reach for its recruitment, IT and HR consulting business. With offices in Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, Reed is expanding its operations internationally to meet the needs of both local and global businesses.

Reed Learning provides learning and training opportunities, with services which currently include: postgraduate study programmes, business training and personal development courses. Since it was founded in 1995, Reed Learning has grown into one of the foremost learning organisations in the UK.  Reed Learning deliver over 50,000 days training a year across the country and our exam pass rates are some of the best in the world.

Since 1998, Reed in Partnership has specialised in programmes designed to break down the barriers to employment. We have a proven ability to create flexible solutions to local issues, creating a multitude of route ways to employment and social inclusion. Since our launch in 1998, we have helped over 115,000 people into employment and worked with more than 10,000 employers, ranging from local businesses to large national corporations.

Reed Online

Reed Online manage and develop our online presence through the UK's biggest jobsite, reed.co.uk. Offering all businesses innovative and cost effective online recruitment solutions, reed.co.uk has been pioneering online recruitment since 1995 and now regularly receives over 2.5 million job applications per month, with over 12,000 recruiters.