HAMPSHIRE County Council, new sponsors for this year’s awards, will hand out the Growth Business of the Year accolade to one deserving company.

The council’s Economic Development Office will award a flourishing firm that has managed to show sustainable and consistent growth during 2013, demonstrating how they have flourished against a backdrop of continuing economic difficulties.

The winner will need to be able to show consistent sustainable growth at either the turnaround or earnings level over the last two years and expect that growth will continue for the foreseeable future.

Judges are looking for a company whose turnaround and profits have grown year on year and can show examples of initiatives to drive growth.

THE CAR FINANCE COMPANY

FROM a humble start The Car Finance Company has grown significantly in a period of economic crisis, to become the largest provider of this type of funding in the UK, as well as becoming a large local employer in the south coast region.

This year they will have the ability to fund at least 25,000 further car purchases for consumers who are generally excluded from bank lending institutions, allowing buyers to commute to work, take children to school, go to the shops and lead a life most of us take for granted.

In order to achieve this, the company plans to recruit and train at least 100 additional members of staff.

LAKESMERE

CELEBRATING 21 years of successful trading, the Lakesmere Group, with its head office in  Winchester, Hampshire, is the UK’s leading roofing, cladding and specialist facades manufacturer
and contractor.

The company employs circa 400 permanent staff operating from thirteen offices throughout the UK and the Middle East. Lakesmere’s impressive portfolio of construction projects includes the
London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympic Games, the new Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 building and the King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah.

Major growth and expansion has doubled turnover in the last 12 months to £87m and is  expected to reach £100m by 2015.

PEACH TELECOM

PEACH Telecom is a multi-award-winning technology provider of telephone systems, landline and call packages, mobile solutions and broadband and fibre connectivity to UK businesses.

Peach also offers IT Managed Services including backup and disaster recovery, antivirus and security, hosted email and cloud services, hardware and support. Based in Whiteley, Peach’s slogan is ‘Making technology simple’ and it can truly say it takes a friendly, honest and personal approach, paying real attention to its customers.

Customers and vendors continue to work with Peach because they know exactly what they’re getting: a trusted, reliable partner with an excellent industry reputation.

FEEFO

FEEFO, the global feedback engine and Google Licensed Content Partner, collates ratings and reviews from verified customers.

Over 1,500 brands around the globe now use Feefo, from household names to start-up enterprises. Feefo integrates into merchant websites, search engine results and social media.

Businesses gain insight into their customer journey, while consumers can trust that they are reading genuine reviews to help make informed buying decisions.

Amongst Feefo members, Monarch Airlines invite all passengers to feedback on both their booking and in-flight experiences, while TM Lewin have implemented Feefo to gather reviews
for both in-store and online purchases.