Local recruitment specialists Smart Moves Recruitment are enjoying their football in more ways than one this season.

In addition to their current status as Official Seasonal Programme Sponsors at MK Dons Football Club, Smart Moves have now played an instrumental role in helping the Club expand their corporate sales team as part of their on-going growth and development.

Despite the economic downturn, MK Dons are enjoying increases in spectators and interest from local companies for advertising and hospitality requirements.

Such is the demand that the Club has appointed John Lloyd as Business Sales Executive and Kate Sreeves as Business Sales Co-ordinator who both came through the agency.

James Parkinson, Head of Partnerships at the Club and a driving force behind business development, has been heavily involved in the recruitment of Kate and John and is clearly delighted with the work done by Smart Moves.

He said: "We have seen a huge take up in stadium advertising and client entertainment; it can only be down to the credit crunch making companies work harder at increasing market share and seeing that their top clients are kept close.

"With this growth happening we had to quickly build on the existing team.I decided to use an agency to help in this task as I knew time was limited and we wanted to get the right quality candidates interviewed as soon as possible.

"Smart Moves listened to our needs and very quickly found strong applicants for us to interview which saved the Club a lot of time in sifting through CV's and screening applicants."

"John and Kate have settled into the Club very quickly and we are delighted with their progress and we look forward to working on a long relationship with them both."

Louisa Harris from Smart Moves Recruitment also indicated her delight with the partnership and subsequent employment placement

She said: "We are immensely proud to be associated with the MK Dons and were delighted when asked to recruit two additional key members of staff. Understanding our clients' ethos and our candidates' aspirations is what enables us to be top of our game."