A Bradford businessman’s career has gone “full circle” after his company bought the building where he worked in his first job more than a decade earlier.

When Azhar Hussain graduated from university 12 years ago, he joined a recruitment agency based at 4 Mornington Villas, Manningham.

Now the 36-year-old, from Shipley, is back in that same building as joint-director of Encon Staffing Associates – the company he formed with his business partner Giles Casson, 31, from Oxenhope. Mr Hussain, speaking from his office in the imposing building, said: “It’s strange how things have worked out because I initially worked in this building 12 years ago after I graduated from Hull University.

“Another company used to occupy this building and I worked here in recruitment for two and a half years before I moved to another agency where I met Giles, who was another Hull graduate.

“Giles was doing a year’s placement and we said to each other ‘why don’t we try starting our own recruitment agency?’ “Even though we were quite young at the time, we decided to go for it.

“We set up at 249 Manningham Lane where we stayed for about two years, then moved to Clifton Villas and were there for two and a half years.

“We moved in July 2008 to this building, which is actually where I started my recruitment career. It’s gone full circle.”

In the years since its formation, Encon helped to supply workers for the region’s construction industry, which was booming at the time.

The company had an annual turnover of between £4.5 and £5 million, but that halved when the recession struck. Encon has a projected turnover of £2.2 million for the 2009/10 financial year. Mr Hussain said: “We boomed for the first five and a half years, then recession hit and business slowed down due to the construction industry having no work around.”

The company diversified and opened up a commercial and domestic cleaning service, providing cleaning services for various types of premises.

Mr Hussain said: “The cleaning business is doing really well. We supply construction companies with staff at the start of the process and now, at the end, when the new developments need cleaning, we can do that as well.

“We are in the process for getting a cleaning job in London at Wembley Stadium with a client who is building the office blocks.”