Soar like an Eagle!

Red Eagle Recruitment soared to the top at the 2007 Channel Chamber business awards.

Local paper The Herald wrote:

The firm won the Channel Business of the Year 2007 award, which was sponsored by HSBC, Kent Regional Newspapers and the Channel Chamber.

Owners Wayne Hodgson and Jo-Anna Hodgson live in Whitstable and worked from home for a while before opening the firm's offices in Bouverie Square, Folkestone in 2005.

A year later they entered their company for the awards and won the Most Promising New Business category.

Wayne said: "We decided to enter again this year because last year's awards were so good for us.  "As well as giving us self-belief, other people also saw how our first year of trading went.  "The awards raise our profile, and we're really looking forward to the ceremony."

Wayne and Jo-Anna decided to open Red Eagle after they found they no longer felt they fitted in with the firm they used to work for.

Wayne said: "We have the freedom to make our own decisions and implement our own ideas.  "The freedom is brilliant.  The buck stops with us."

They employ eight people, one of whom works outside the Folkestone office.  The team deals mainly with temporary work in the industrial and transport sectors and have several exclusive contracts.

The panel described the business as "absolutely extraordinary," "amazing" and "simply brilliant."

The panel said: "Red Eagle Recruitment is just two and a half years old but already has an enviable reputation and turnover, with some really exciting plans for the future.  "So how have they done it?  Through knowledge of the sector, bloody-mindedness and sheer hard work - 24/7.

"The business partners live and breathe their business - and the figures show it.

"The energy of the directors is exhausting to watch, the canniness of their business model breathtaking and the plans for the next three years resourceful and exciting.

"Excellent attention to detail in planning, growth and diversification were some of the key characteristics noted by the judges.

"With committed, energetic staff this company looks set to be a real part of the Shepway success story.

"Led by Wayne Hodgson, who in the opinion of the judges is one of the few true entrepeneurs, this business is set to grow and grow."