Case studies
24 Hour Company
24 Hour Company, a US based company that assists businesses prepare bid-winning graphics proposals for government and defence contracts, chose Kent as the business location for its first UK office.
Adams Creative
Adams Creative is Kent's leading, full-service marketing agency. Established for more than 20 years, it provides innovative, cost-effective advice and solutions to a diverse range of clients in both private and public sectors.
AEI Compounds
AEI Compounds Ltd, a subsidiary of TT electronics plc, is expanding and relocating from its base in Gravesend to Sandwich, Kent, thanks to a Grant for Business Investment, which is funded by the South East England Development Agency.
asb Law
asb Law is one of largest regional law firms in the UK. Employing more than 200 people across its offices in the south east, it has a 100-year connection with Kent. Their new operation on Eclipse Park represents a significant step in driving forward their ambitious development plans for the future.
Cabot Financial
Locate in Kent was supported by Business Link Kent, in bringing Cabot Financial (Europe) Limited to Kent in 1998. The company is the market leader in consumer debt purchase in the UK, acquiring portfolios from the biggest consumer banks in the UK. Cabot is located at Kings Hill, West Malling and its contact centre is an excellent example of why Kent is such a good location for financial services companies.
Clydesdale Bank
Clydesdale Bank has a well-established history of innovating and supporting its 7.7 million customers world-wide. Maidstone is home to one of its cutting-edge Financial Solutions Centres, offering customers a highly integrated business and private banking service.
Comma Oils
Comma Oils decided not to move from Kent to Le Havre in France thanks to a funding package from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) organised by Locate in Kent.
Commidea
Commidea is the UK’s leading developer and provider of debit and credit card payment processing systems and services. Commidea relocated from Maidstone in Kent and believes the move to a purpose-built office in Ashford will support its planned growth for the future.
Countrystyle Group
Countrystyle Group, one of the largest privately owned waste management and recycling companies in the South East, is continuing to expand across Kent with the acquisition of a new head office.
Courtyard Studios
Courtyard Studios, based in Hollingbourne, is Kent's premier studio and lighting hire facility, which caters mainly for stills photography and TV commercials. It has been based in Kent for over 20 years.
Cummins Power Generation
Cummins Power Generation is a world leader in power generation, delivering a complete range of generator sets for prime and standby power solutions for a wide variety of applications around the globe.
Ecoffins
Ecoffins, a leading manufacturer of eco-friendly coffins and part of parent company SAWD Partnership, was awarded a grant of up to £50,000 by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) under the Grant for Business Investment scheme, to assist its expansion in Sittingbourne, Kent.
Ecologia
Ecologia, a consultant and contractor in contaminated land and ground water remediation was founded in 2000 at Kent Science Park.
Ecoprocess
Waste management company Ecoprocess decided to undertake an expansion programme to create 50 jobs after agreeing to base its UK headquarters at the Questor Business Park in Dartford, Kent.
Fresca Group
Investment promotion agency Locate in Kent worked closely with the Fresca Group and Robert Montgomery to assist in plans to develop the UK’s most hi-tech greenhouse complex on the Isle of Thanet.
GlobalExpense
GlobalExpense, the UK’s leading provider of expense management services, relocated its receipt auditing facility from London to Kent Science Park, Sittingbourne in 2008, with assistance from investment promotion agency Locate in Kent.
Go Response
When Go Response chose Kent Science Park as its new home in 2004, better overall quality of life and access to a loyal, local workforce were high on the list of factors influencing the decision to set up its call centre operation in Kent.
Go Talk
Go Talk provides telephony services including calling cards, residential phone services, dial through Premium Rate Services and call back services to end users in the UK and Ireland.
Headley Brothers Ltd
Headley Brothers Ltd is the leading magazine and journal printer in Kent, specialising in providing innovative, competitively priced colour print solutions to a national and international client base. Established in 1881, it is still owned and run by descendants of the same family.
Hunter Off-Site Ltd
Hunter Off-Site Ltd, the UK’s most advanced sustainable timber-frame volumetric housing manufacturer, has relocated to a 30,000 sq ft premises in Aylesford, Kent, with the assistance of Locate in Kent. Hunter’s relocation has led to the creation of 20 new jobs, with a view to doubling this in 2010.
Kent International Airport
Kent International Airport (KIA) is an important and growing regional airport contributing to easing congestion at other South East airports and promoting new and exciting opportunities for growth in the sub-regional economy.
Laing O'Rourke, Construction
Laing O'Rourke is one of the biggest names in construction. With contracts to build Terminal 5 at Heathrow, the new Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh and Basingstoke's new shopping centre, the drive for efficiency, lean management and innovation is a paramount priority.
Megger
For over 100 years, Megger has been a market leader in electrical testing equipment and measuring instruments for electrical power applications, most famously insulation testers. Other areas of specialism include cable fault locating, protective relay testing and power quality testing, although the company offers a wide range of over 1,000 products.
The Maidstone Studios
The Maidstone Studios has been making great TV shows for more than 20 years. Originally built by TVS in 1982, the studio has become one of the UK’s leading facilities. Major investment over the last few years has included the construction of Studio 5 - the largest single studio floor in the country, capable of seating 1,000 people.
Murex Biotech
Locate in Kent has played a vital role in encouraging US-owned Murex Biotech to increase its investment in Kent over the last four years, which has lead to the creation of 200 jobs in the county. Murex’s headquarters is based in Chicago and the company is the fourth largest pharmaceutical firm in the world.
NorthWise Services
NorthWise Services (NWS), with headquarters at Kent Science Park, in Sittingbourne and other offices in Belgium and Hungary, was established in 2001, building on a strong foundation of very extensive experience by its directors in the pharmaceutical CRO and other industries.
PageSuite
PageSuite is an award-winning digital publishing software house that specialises in the newspaper and magazines industry. It is highly regarded as one of the UK’s leading publishing software houses and is renowned for its professional page-turning software.
PPR Wipag
PPR WIPAG, based in Dover, Kent, specialises in a unique technology where it is able to take plastic waste that others send to landfill sites and produce a product that is re-usable in its original form.
Pfizer
US owned Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets leading prescription medicines for humans and animals and many of the world's best-known consumer brands.
Sharp Interpack
Three years ago, when the company acquired new owners, a major incentive was needed to convince them to continue to invest in Kent.
Saga
The Saga Group focuses exclusively on the provision of high quality, value-for-money services for people 50 and over. These include holidays to worldwide destinations, an award-winning magazine, insurance and financial products.
Sagittarius Marketing
Sagittarius Marketing is a full service advertising and marketing agency based in Folkestone Kent, with creative excellence and a sophisticated approach to off-line and on-line marketing requirements. The agency has an exceptional reputation for delivering results driven marketing solutions for international blue chip companies to locally based SMEs.
Solace Pharmaceuticals
With its American office in Boston, Solace Pharmaceuticals is a privately owned organisation which researches and develops innovative pain relief treatments. The company approached investment promotion agency Locate in Kent for assistance in finding suitable commercial property and subsequently moved four employees to The Denne Hill Business Centre in Womenswold, near Canterbury. The company expects to create seven further jobs in the county within three years.
Sota
Established in 1989, specialist IT services provider, Sota Solutions Ltd, relocated to Kent Science Park in 2003, after delivering a project to expand the availability of Broadband Internet access at the site. Thanks to Sota, Kent Science Park is now probably the best connected business location in the region, and is fast becoming a magnet to bandwidth-hungry businesses and organisations.
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Synchronica
Synchronica is one of the world’s leading developers of award-winning consumer mobile email and synchronisation solutions for mobile operators, device manufacturers and service providers. Its headquarters have been based in Tunbridge Wells since 2006, with regional offices in Hong Kong, Dubai, and the US and mobile operator customers as far a-field as the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East.
The Bunker
The Bunker is an ultra secure data centre that offers the most secure facility for hosted systems, data storage and managed services in the UK, located in Kent inside an ex-military command bunker.
Thomas Pink
World famous shirt tailor Thomas Pink has opened a new warehouse and distribution centre in Kent.
Towergate Partnership
Towergate Partnership is the largest independently owned insurance intermediary in Europe. With its central office at County Gate, Maidstone, the company now employs in excess of 4,000 people – including more than 100 in Maidstone, 30 in Whitstable and 54 in Sevenoaks.
Vanquis Bank, Financial Services
A reputation as one of the best call centre locations in the UK has inspired FTSE 100 company, Provident Financial plc, to open its Vanquis Bank call centre at Chatham Maritime Business Park in Medway.
White Rose Environmental Ltd
White Rose Environmental Ltd is one of the leading clinical waste companies in the UK, and has been providing total waste management solutions to the healthcare sector since 1992.
Westgate Communications
Helen Westgate, director of Westgate Communications, first considered Kent after a conversation with a colleague when working at a big London PR agency. She said: “We were discussing the perils of living and working in the Capital as working mothers. My colleague started talking about her life in Kent, about her children’s fantastic schools and the lovely countryside where they all walked at weekends.
WK Finn-Kelcey
Finn-Kelcey & Chapman has been a leading Kent and Ashford firm for some 80 years and in May 2008 merged with Wilkins Kennedy a top 30 firm which takes its roots back 125 years. The merged Ashford firm, W K Finn-Kelcey, continues to operate from its Station Road offices with 70 directors, partners and staff.
Zebra Geosciences, Life Sciences
Zebra Geosciences, a recently established joint venture company set up operations in Kent in January 2003. The inventive company, which specialises in analysing geological and seismic information, was the first company to base itself at Invicta Innovations, the Enterprise Hub in East Malling.
