LAST year s Business of the Year was Movewithus, the residential property business, based in St Ives, which also won the Business Development Award, sponsored by England Marketing. This was the first year this category had been included. It required the f

LAST year's Business of the Year was Movewithus, the residential property business, based in St Ives, which also won the Business Development Award, sponsored by England Marketing.

This was the first year this category had been included. It required the finalists and the eventual winners to show that they had put together and maintained a marketing and sales development strategy.

They also needed to show that their strategy actually worked and the impact it had had on their business.

Based in St Ives, the independently owned Movewithus has expanded over the past seven years into one of the leading residential property businesses in the UK. It offers services to home buyers, estate agents, developers and investors as well as specialising in part-exchange services with new home builders.

Sean King, chief executive, told The Hunts Post yesterday (Tuesday) about the impact winning a Hunts Post Business Award had had on the business.

He said: "We are a national business working across the UK but the award raised our profile locally. It brought us local recognition and it made it easier to recruit good people. Huntingdonshire is a good region for recruitment but you need to be able to persuade people to work for you and not go to London or Cambridge. It was also good for our own employees to know that they are working for a successful company."

Mr King added that the company would be entering the awards again this year. "We came third in the Employee of the Year section. We would like to win first place this year.