Sorry, this video asset has been removed.

Watch the winners get
their award and hear from KM Group chairman Geraldine Allinson

by business editor Trevor Sturgess

The county’s fastest-growing firm, with
sales up a staggering 600 per cent, is to celebrate with Champagne
and bacon sandwiches.

Specialist recruitment agency Hobson
Prior, based in Tunbridge Wells, topped the eighth annual Kent and
MegaGrowth50 awards presented to the 50 businesses showing the
fastest sales growth over the past four years.

Each one received a framed certificate
from KM Group chairman Geraldine Allinson at a presentation
breakfast in Fairfax Hall, Leeds Castle, attended by more than 80
guests.

Hobson Prior earned the coveted top
spot after four years of sustained growth. Turnover has soared from
£1.47m in 2004-05 to £10.26m in 2007-2008, growth of 597 per
cent.

The business was founded by Matthew
Perrett and Jane Woodhead in 2002, and specialises in recruiting
highly skilled people into life sciences and the pharmaceutical
industry.

Mr Perrett said it was lovely to win
the award and paid tribute to his team. “We’ve got all of our staff
to thank for it. They’ve worked extremely hard.”

Various staff events were planned and
he promised Champagne and bacon sandwiches – “they are always
asking for them!” - in place of their usual fruit.

He put the firm’s phenomenal turnover
growth down to the “reasonably resilient” market it was in, coupled
with good client relationships.

It was important to focus on the bottom
line, he said, and Hobson Prior had been profitable from day one.
“We’ve always aligned our costs to our sales. Once you’ve done
that, you are in a very strong position. You can decide your fate
in terms of when you grow, how you grow, and when you do grow,
don’t leverage your business to support that growth - use your own
resources.”

Bordeaux Wine Investments and the
Foresight Group, both in Sevenoaks, were second and third
respectively.

The annual survey is sponsored by
Lloyds TSB Commercial and Reeves & Neylan, Kent’s largest
accounting firm, and produced by the KM Group. Mrs Allinson said:
“We are relying on you to help Kent be one of the first places to
come out of the recession we are all suffering at the moment. You
have done fantastic things.”

Phil Beales, area
director for Lloyds TSB Commercial in Kent and East Sussex, told
guests: “The strength and diversity of the industry sectors
represented by your businesses reinforce why Kent and the Medway
region is considered one of Europe’s most dynamic
locations.”

Their achievement was down to
inspirational and entrepreneurial leadership. “These awards are all
about celebrating and recognising exceptional business
success.”

Clive Stevens, managing partner of
Reeves & Neylan, added: “It’s staggering that these 50
businesses were responsible for sales of more than £1.2bn last year
and they are all privately owned. If growing profitably by more
than 60 per cent over four years isn’t good news, then what
is.”

• Related articles: Kent's Megagrowth 50 top firm announced
• Profiles of the top 10 growing firms in Kent