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

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 Medway 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.”