by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Specialist recruitment agency Hobson Prior is the fastest-growing business in the county - with staggering four-year growth of nearly 600 per cent.

The Tunbridge Wells-based firm topped the 2009 Kent and MegaGrowth50 list of recession-busting firms unveiled during a presentation breakfast at Leeds Castle earlier today. Between them, they notched up sales of £1.2bn last year.

Dozens of business leaders from across the county attended the eagerly-anticipated annual celebration of commercial success, underlining Kent and Medway’s pedigree as great places to start and grow a business.

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.

Many years of experience in the sector coupled with high-octane performance have earned the company a burgeoning reputation in the industry. Its strapline proclaims “exceptional people delivering exceptional standards.”

Mr Perrett admitted that the past year had been challenging but while pharma was not recession-proof, it was “recession-resilient.”

Bordeaux Wine Investments and the Foresight Group, both in Sevenoaks, were second and third respectively, with Rochester-based Alltask, Hawkspare, from Dartford, Medway-based mine clearance firm BACTEC International, FLR Spectron, Orpington, RJParry, Faversham, RGCM, West Malling, and Pentagon Holdings, Orpington, all making it into the top 10.

To see profiles of the top 10 businesses - and the table of all the top 50 - click on this special report link

The annual survey is sponsored by Lloyds TSB Commercial and Reeves & Neylan and produced by the KM Group.

Each of the 50 firms won a framed certificate, with special awards and bottles of bubbly for those at the top of the list. Their percentage rate of growth was calculated from Companies House records over a four-year period.

Clive Stevens, managing partner of Reeves & Neylan, said: “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.”

Phil Beales, area director for Lloyds TSB Commercial in Kent and East Sussex, added: “Over the past year, companies in Kent have faced unprecedented challenges, but it has been great to see many local firms overcoming the tough economic conditions to build successful, award-winning businesses.”