PR is not the strongest suit of the private equity brigade. They are variously described as as barbarians, asset-strippers and tax-dodging vultures; accused of slashing jobs, ignoring pensions and paying low wages before selling up and moving on to the next target or retiring. This has led to increasing levels of political scrutiny in recent months, but until last week a lesser-known consequence was the inability of private equity-owned companies to recruit talent even for well-paid jobs ('Best candidates 'put off by private equity', The Grocer, 4 August, p12). With fears over long-term prospects, it was middle managers in the £40,000-£80,000 bracket who were most difficult to attract, says Steve Simmance, founder of fmcg recruitment practice The Simmance Partnership. "There are a lot of foundations to be laid before these employers become attractive," he told The Grocer. But is the reputation deserved? Negative perceptions have come about in part due to "lazy critics" labelling private equity as short-termists, says Martin Glenn, the highly regarded former PepsiCo boss who now leads Iglo Birds Eye Frozen Foods, which was bought from Unilever by PE house Permira last year. "In four to five years, investors will get their money back by some sort of flotation, the sale to another company or a secondary buyout," he says. "But Permira will be looking at the long term. It's no good just ripping costs out. You can do that, but you get a higher price if the company is sold as a going concern with top-line growth and successful management." Grocery veteran Paul Monk agrees. "Private equity does get a lot of bad press, but undeservedly so. It's made more millionaires of normal people than plcs ever have. It is totally wrong to view private equity as short-term operators - look at their track record." Monk is in a particularly strong position to comment following extensive experience working with private equity backers. As CEO of Golden Wonder, he led a £68m MBO backed by Legal & General Ventures as early as 1995 and sold it to Bridgepoint Capital for £156.5m in 2000. "Golden Wonder was a difficult turnaround - the business was losing a lot of money when we took it over, but by the time we sold it was making £17m. "It was always my philosophy to give as much as possible as a motivational force. At Golden Wonder we must have had at least 40 senior and middle managers on incentives." In 2002, Monk became a non-executive director of WT Foods, the private equity vehicle that owned Noon Foods for six years before selling it off to Kerry Foods in 2005 for £124m. "Like Golden Wonder, WT Foods had a simple approach: have a clear strategy for the business, recruit high calibre people and reward them well." Monk admits that private equity does not have the same structured training programmes as big multi-national plcs, but argues on-the-job training more than compensates. "It's training of a different kind. The experience you get from the exposure to financial markets and dynamic business practices is worth just as much." Glenn agrees. Private equity offers opportunities to all levels of management because of freedom to operate without the shackles of a bucreacratic corporate structure, and greater financial rewards.But he admits it's not for everyone. "People see this company as an exciting place to work as it is in turnaround," he says. "We brought in former UK general manager of P&G, Anne Murphy, to lead Birds Eye UK. She has had no difficulty building a strong team. It's great to work without the confines of corporate bureaucracy, but that's attractive only to a certain type of person. Private equity is not the right move for anyone happier with structure and processes." Glenn says Birds Eye aims to offer the biggest performance-based bonuses and is also setting up a share scheme that will be open to everyone in the business, similar to the share incentive programmes common in big plcs. However, private equity cannot convince everyone they are a safe career bet. "Not all private equity firms are the same," says TUC deputy general secretary Frances O'Grady. "Company values vary greatly. And the industry's lack of transparency and the fact that purchased companies are loaded with debt is going to make potential employees think twice." Adds Simmance: "There's a lot of foundations to be laid before these employers become attractive. Employee engagement is critical."n