CV LIBRARY staggered the INSPIRE12 judges with their impressive performance – and it landed them the top award of the night.

Managing director Lee Biggins co-founded the business with Brian Wakem 12 years ago, and it is now the country’s leading independent job site.

After receiving the evening’s most coveted accolade, Lee said: “I’m well chuffed.We were not expecting to win this, so we’re really pleased. We were up for two awards but this is the one we really, really wanted.”

The company, based in Fleet, employs about 65 people – 35 of which have been taken on this year – and was also a finalist for the Online Excellence Award.

“To win Business of the Year is absolutely huge,” said Lee. “We’ve been up for a lot of awards, but to win Business of the Year really is the icing on the cake for the year we’ve had.

“We’ve had a fantastic year – we’ve hit best-ever growth across all metrics in every area, excelled all our targets and grown the business by 427 per cent.”

“Our turnover at the end of this year will be about £8million, and next year we will be aiming for about £12m.”

He explained that all of the firm’s business comes from recruitment agencies and growing businesses.

“I think the real transition for us in the last two years has been the fact that corporates have been recruiting from us directly,” explained Lee.

“They have seen the job board as a cost-effective way to recruit people. They can dip into our database of just over five million people and get the best candidates for their business. It’s fast, efficient, and it’s cost-effective.”

Presenting the award to Lee was Phil Wilding, managing director of category sponsor Wilding Butler.

Phil said: “Lee and Brian had an idea and just made that idea into something that is phenomenally successful.

“My initial reaction when Lee gave me the figures was that this can’t be right, but they are. He is working in as competitive an environment as everyone else, and CV Library is making lots of money where other people aren’t.

“Their offices look really professional and the people that work there look happy and are enjoying themselves. CV Library really epitomise what the INSPIRE awards are all about.”