by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Former Kent MP Ann Widdecombe has hailed a bomb disposal firm for 20 years of growth but hopes it will run out of business before its centenary.

BACTEC International, based in Medway City Estate and founded in Gillingham in 1991, operates in more than 40 countries and employs around 1,000 people worldwide.

It has cleared landmines from numerous former war zones, including the Falklands, as well as checking for unexploded bombs across London and wind farm sites in the Thames Estuary off Kent.

The firm celebrated its anniversary this week (10) on board HMS Belfast, London, with guest speakers Miss Widdecombe and Lord Digby Jones, former director-general of the CBI.

The television celebrity and former MP for Maidstone and the Weald said BACTEC was an example of how to set up an enterprise from nothing. Its success was just what Britain needed. And, importantly, it was created in Kent.

But she added: "In a way, we must all hope that BACTEC does not celebrate its centenary because the world will be a better place when there is no need for its services."

She admitted this was unlikely and with all the conflicts in the world, the need would increase rather than diminish for decades to come.

She commended BACTEC for making areas in the developing world safe for children to play rather than "coming to grief on landmines".

Lord Digby Jones said BACTEC was an impressive company.

"They fulfill virtually every vision I have for a UK business," he said.

Company founder Major Guy Lucas, an ex-Royal Engineer, said success was based on his team, treating them properly and supporting them through thick and thin.

There was also a determination to say Yes.

"When we founded BACTEC 20 years ago, it was a question of not accepting No for an answer," he said.

"There are always ways of doing things and to go for it."