Fifty of the county's fastest-growing businesses are anxiously waiting to learn where they have come in this year's MegaGrowth awards.

All will be revealed at a breakfast ceremony tomorrow morning when the top 50 will be announced in reverse order.

Kent and MegaGrowth 50 awards will be presented at Turkey Mill, Maidstone. Now in their ninth year, the awards recognise companies that have recorded the biggest growth over the previous four years.

Last year's winner Hobson Prior International, a Tunbridge Wells-based recruitment business for the pharmaceutical industry, is expected to appear in the latest listing.

Others competing for top spot include Pentagon Holdings, an Orpington-based freight services company specialising in the global oil and gas industry; Wozair, from Gillingham, which designs and installs ventilation systems for oil rigs; Bordeaux Wine Investments, Sevenoaks; Medway Power Transmission, Ashford; Alltask, a scaffolding to fire protection company in Rochester; and Allsands, a builders' merchant in Maidstone.

The awards are backed by Reeves, the accounting firm with offices in Chatham Maritime, Canterbury, Gatwick and London, and Lloyds TSB Commercial. They are organised by the KM Group.

Clive Stevens, managing partner at Reeves, said times had been tough for many companies but the best had adapted to the new situation.

"Business owners who see the recession as an opportunity as much as a threat tend to be the ones who continue to grow and prosper."

Phil Beales, area director for Lloyds TSB Commercial in Kent and East Sussex, added: "The key to successfully planning for growth is to identify which opportunities can deliver new sales."

All the winners are revealed in Kent Business, out with KM Group paid-for newspapers this week. They will also be online at www.kentbusiness.co.uk