From champion one day, to therapy the next - the myth of the happy seller

One man's tale of post-deal trauma could be a lesson for many

Jo Sellick looked across the pitch from a private executive box at Manchester City Football Club and he felt content.

It was April of 2019 and he’d just rented the space for the final completion meeting to seal the deal to sell his recruitment business, Sellick Partnership, to the French giant Samsic.

He’d tried to organise a space at Old Trafford, home of his beloved Manchester United, to toast the deal with Thierry Geffroy, president of Samsic Group and Gilles Cavallari, vice-president of Samsic HR, but it was City who once again came up with the goods. 

Football had played a big part in the lengthy courtship between Samsic and Sellick, prior to then inking the deal to buy his £43m turnover recruitment business covering finance, legal, HR, actuarial, procurement, housing and property services.

The Rennes based business has strong links to Rennes Football Club in France’s Ligue 1, and the new team bonded over football, including in a game against Paris St Germain (pictured).

Little did he imagine back then that before his five year earn out period with his suitors had ended, he would end up knocking on the door of the private health clinic The Priory seeking help as his mental health deteriorated. 

The story has a happyish ending. Jo is OK. His relationship with Gilles and Thierry is good. But at the turn of the year he left the group for good and is now contemplating life without the business that bears his name.

It’s a salutary story, and in opening up over tea and biscuits to me, Jo hopes that maybe doing a deal should carry the health warning for entrepreneurs. That as well as engaging their advisers to sell their business, invest their proceeds, they maybe should put some preparation in for the loss that may follow.

Doing the deal

Samsic wasn’t the first buyer to court Sellick. Other suitors were keen on a meeting once Jo had engaged Boxington, a London-based independent M&A advisory house that specialises in human capital and recruitment businesses. 

“I turned down two offers,” he says, “we didn’t want private equity, but we ideally wanted a family owned business that felt Sellick could give them something they didn’t have.” 

Founded in 1986 and based in Rennes, France, Samsic fitted the bill. One of Europe’s largest business service providers they employ 90,000 people in 25 countries, generating a turnover of €2.6bn annually.

They took a majority stake in Sellick and said at the time that they were looking to expand in the wake of the deal.

The idea that a larger than life figure like Jo Sellick would just walk away from a business that has been created in his own image - passionate, driven, and ambitious - was unthinkable. But he didn’t just stick around to see the deal through, he was retained on a five year minimum earn out, and at first, was pretty much left to run the show, but with the confidence of their backing in a “strategic advisory role”.

Jo Sellick said at the time that the deal reflected the “whole team ethos” of his business that Samsic valued. 

“Sellick Partnership opens the door to new sectors and markets for Samsic,” he said, adding that their “strategic investments in businesses like ours” was to be the “springboard for accelerated expansion over time.”

When the deal was signed Sellick Partnership had more than 100 employees in Manchester, Liverpool, Derby, Leeds, Newcastle, Stoke-on-Trent and London.

As well as having his name above the door, and on the chequebook, he still decided who to hire and who to promote.

Edging away and going into therapy

But as time went on Jo started to feel the overall control slipping from him. His relationship with France was always good, but by the spring and summer of 2023 his long term role within the business was getting discussed. What started as them checking in with him, started to unsettle him and, as he reflects now, it could have gone in several directions.

“With your name above the door the ‘unknown’ started to become very challenging and it became a stressful period for me,” he says.

“I walked into the Priory one day and explained my situation.  A week later I sat in front of a lady whose opening question was ‘so why are you here’ which was fair enough.”

All through our conversations he’s been hugely aware of the privileged position he found himself in, but felt that a huge part of his life was slipping away. His sense of purpose felt like it was vaporising before his eyes.

“With a potential ‘crossroads’ of my life having spent 22 years building a business she assured me that what I was experiencing was very, very normal.

“She explained she had met countless entrepreneurs in my position who potentially on a Friday we’re happily employed but then on the Monday didn’t have a role.”

“Her advice was if my role was to change then I should try and visualise how the future might look and feel.  How my day might pan out.  Family.  Kids.  Dog.  Sport.  Hobbies.  Exercise.  Non executive roles.  Charities etc etc – you get the picture.”

All told, he had six sessions and says that they worked brilliantly, they enabled him to clear his mind and face the future. 

“The therapy allowed me to articulate my feelings and to explain everything I was experiencing was normal and should be embraced,” he says.

In January 2024, he formally announced to the staff and then to clients and the public that he was to leave the recruitment business that bears his name 22 years since he set it up.

His colleagues Hannah Cottam and Ray Wareing, who had been working alongside him since the early days, were to take over.