Blue Arrow

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This article is about Blue Arrow (the Corporate Services Group). For the push-pull train model, see China Railways DJJ1.

A Blue Arrow shop window from, near Holborn station in London

Blue Arrow Limited is an employment and recruitment agency in the United Kingdom. The business was founded in 1982, though the initiator of the business and former president, Mrs Watson-Challis, was dropped from the board after the company became public, see Re Blue Arrow plc [1987] BCLC 585. It provides temporary work and more permanent staff to office, industrial, catering, driving, construction and IT industries. The head office is in Luton, Bedfordshire.

1 Ownership
2 NatWest Financial Scandal
3 See also
4 Footnotes
5 External links

[edit] Ownership

Blue Arrow UK is part of the Corporate Services Group plc (CSG) which is an international staffing business with operations in the UK, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Blue Arrow UK operates through different names and brands in the UK. These include Blue Arrow High Street, Blue Arrow Managed Services, Blue Arrow Driving, Blue Arrow Catering, Blue Arrow Care, ABC Contract Services, ABC Professional Services, Blend and Austin Benn. Blue Arrow is a member of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and is Investors in People accredited.

[edit] NatWest Financial Scandal

In 1987 Blue Arrow was at the centre of a financial scandal when employees of National Westminster Bank's investment arm, County NatWest, covered up a failed issue of £873m of new stock (intended to finance the takeover of Manpower Inc., another employment agency). 14 former bank officials were tried in 1992, but only four were convicted and these convictions were later overturned on appeal. The appeal court judgement described the original trial, which had lasted 13 months, as a "costly disaster" and the case is often cited as an indication of the problems of involving juries in lengthy and complex financial fraud prosecutions. At the time, the trial was estimated to have been the second-longest criminal trial in English history, and to have cost £40m. Blue Arrow itself was cleared of any wrongdoing.^[1]