Retail broker recruiting will be one of the top priorities at Canaccord Capital Corp. at in the year ahead.

In a conference call with analysts today, Canaccord chairman and CEO, Peter Brown, indicated that his firm was disappointed in the number of new recruits it brought on board last year (a net of just 13 additional brokers, although that required 50 new hires). However, Canaccord was pleased by the quality of those hires.

He stressed that Canaccord needs to do a better job recruiting, particularly in Ontario and Alberta.

Brown noted that the recruiting pipeline is quite full, but that it’s hard to predict just when new hires will come through. Some recruits take two months to lure over, others take years, he said. Also, recruiting is often easier in bad markets. When times are good, brokers are more reluctant to switch teams, noted Canaccord president and chief operating officer, Mike Greenwood.

The basic strategy is, “to stay in their face until their boss pisses them off”, Brown explained. That way, when a broker is ready to make a move, Canaccord is the first place they head. He noted that of its 50 latest hires, only three of them were situations where it was competing with another firm for the broker’s services. The vast majority have been determined to move to Canaccord.

The firm hopes that the recruiting effort will gain momentum as it moves into more compelling new premises and rolls out a new separately managed account type product this fall.

The firm also noted that it’s building up its presence in Europe, and is considering a more determined move to the U.S.

Brown stressed that if Canaccord does make a bigger move into the U.S., it will likely follow the blueprint of its UK business — making a small acquisition, and then building the business organically.

Any move would have to be an opportunity in what Canaccord regards as its niche (resources and technology), and it would have to be the right cultural fit, Brown added; noting that it has successfully pulled off numerous integrations in Canada over the years.

He suggested that the U.S. market is particularly appealing since the Ottawa decided to scrap the Foreign Property Rule in its last budget — that means more firms will be looking to the U.S. for funding, particularly in the technology and health sciences area. Canaccord wants to be an underwriter of US securities for those firms.

Also, Brown suggested that building a firm with investment banking expertise and distribution in the U.S., Canada and Europe, would be compelling competitive ground to occupy relative to its rivals.

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