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Global Dairy Trade’s seamless market entry into Singapore
Case Study
Global Dairy Trade (GDT), a leader in financial services and commodities, partnered with Robert Walters to relocate its global headquarters from Auckland, New Zealand, to Singapore. The engagement focused on building GDT’s leadership team by hiring critical roles while ensuring compliance with local labour laws and establishing a scalable talent framework for future growth. Through a tailored recruitment and advisory approach, we successfully delivered all targeted hires within the required timeline, enabling rapid market entry and business expansion.
- Service: Recruitment (Permanent & Contract), Advisory, Executive search
- Industry: Financial services - commodities
Our impact in numbers
-
100%
offer acceptance rate across completed hires
-
3
leadership roles filled within 6 months
-
50+
candidates approached per role, ensuring depth in the pipeline
-
2 months
how long it took to complete the first hire
The Challenge
Global Dairy Trade partnered with Robert Walters to support the relocation of their global headquarters from Auckland, New Zealand, to Singapore and to expand their leadership team through a comprehensive total talent solution. Having never hired in Singapore before, GDT lacked the local expertise needed to establish an effective hiring approach and required a global talent partner with strong local market knowledge to support their expansion.
With their entire team based in New Zealand and no on-the-ground presence in Singapore, GDT faced challenges such as limited understanding of local talent pools, salary benchmarks, hiring expectations, and Singapore’s labor laws. They also lacked an existing employer brand in the local market, making it difficult to confidently attract, assess, and secure top talent without a trusted partner like Robert Walters. These gaps could lead to risks such as hiring missteps due to limited market insight, delays in market entry and growth, difficulty remaining competitive for top candidates, and missed opportunities to build a high-performing team. Robert Walters’ deep understanding of GDT’s culture and hiring needs ensured strong candidate alignment while providing guidance on salary benchmarking, market competitiveness, tailored interview processes, and actionable insights to secure top talent in Singapore.
Setting up the Partnership
Global Dairy Trade engaged Robert Walters to support their expansion into Singapore by delivering a comprehensive talent solution tailored to their unique needs. To ensure accountability and adherence to timelines, we implemented a 3-part retained search model with structured fees tied to key milestones, including candidate shortlisting and successful placements. This approach allowed us to maintain a consistent pipeline of high-quality candidates while ensuring flexibility in delivery.
Special conditions were established to prioritise local candidates with international experience, ensure full compliance with Singapore labour laws, and uphold diversity across gender and nationality. Additionally, we provided advisory services on salary benchmarking, market competitiveness, and interview processes tailored to the local hiring landscape. Our targeted headhunting efforts combined with network outreach ensured that only well-calibrated profiles were presented for consideration, balancing quality with volume.
By combining our deep understanding of the Singapore market with GDT’s internal culture and business objectives, we successfully delivered a cost-efficient, high-quality recruitment strategy that supported their seamless entry into the region and long-term growth plans. Furthermore, our focus on cultural alignment ensured that the selected candidates possessed agility, adaptability across time zones, and a global mindset—key attributes for driving success in an internationally focused organisation like GDT.
The Solution
We deployed a research-led recruitment methodology tailored to GDT’s needs:
- Market Mapping: Identified transferable skillsets across commodities, technology, financial services, and platform-driven businesses.
- Candidate Segmentation: Focused on profiles with B2B sales expertise and stakeholder engagement capabilities.
- Proactive Headhunting: Leveraged networks and direct outreach to passive candidates not actively seeking opportunities.
- Premium Advertising Strategy: Created a dedicated microsite hosted on Robert Walters’ platform to enhance GDT’s employer brand visibility in Singapore’s risk-averse market.
- Consultative Screening: Assessed candidates’ ability to operate in consultative sales environments while navigating complex stakeholder groups.
Key Results
Our partnership delivered exceptional outcomes:
- Till date, we have three targeted hires completed within the required timeline.
- First hire finalised within 2 months of engagement.
- Maintained consistent momentum across mandates despite seniority, complexity and volume.
- Enabled rapid market entry through discounted Employer of Record (EOR) solutions for cost efficiency.
- Leveraged on our “Winning as One” approach, ensuring strong collaboration across multiple service lines – permanent recruitment, contracting/EOR, and advisory – to deliver a seamless, end-to-end solution for the client.
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