DS Group Japan

The Full Story

DS Rec - how it happened.

The DS Group begins in a supermarket in the wine aisle of a supermarket in small town (by Japanese standards) Kyushu in 2010. A random conversation between a Tokyo recruiter and a local wine guy led to a few beers/wines/ BBQs/days at the beach which eventually became DS Group in 2014.

Darren had worked in large international recruitment firms in both Tokyo and Singapore since 2003.After working in Singapore and seeing the success of the Rec to Rec business over there, he realized there was an opportunity to fill this gap in the market in Japan. This combined with a desire to be able escape the big city commute and ride a bicycle to work convinced him to make the jump to starting a company.

Simon was importing wine from NZ and Chile into Japan. Abenomics had pushed the value of the yen down, making margins tougher just at the time Darren came knocking to see if there was an interest to start a recruitment company. Always up for a challenge, he jumped at the chance. Simon is probably the only person in history who has found their alcohol consumption decreased after moving into recruitment.

At DS, we make a point of having a good work life balance. We work hard, but balance it out by making use of the fact that our office is by the beach in a nice, laid back area. When the weather is right, on any given day you will someone from the office out on the beach on their bikes, Simon or Miyuki in the water on a surfboard or SUP,  and Darren doing his best to keep the local cycle store in good profitability