A Norfolk-born business is looking to double in size from in excess of £20m to a £40m turnover within the next five years with its success built entirely on recommendations from customers.

Carter Accommodation in King's Lynn is a portable accommodation specialist which has built it's client base from existing customers and those recommended by word of mouth.

Now the £18m business has been bought out by Modulair - a Europe-wide business services company - which will catapult the team of 150 to its next stage.

The business has been driven by managing director Darren Arnold since 1998, who assisted in a management buyout in 2015 when £7m was invested by Connection Capital.

The private equity fund has now exited the business and under new ownership Carter will seek to double its stock of accommodation units to 12,000 as well as undergo an upskilling and recruitment drive.

"This year has really accelerated the increase in demands we were already expecting because suddenly businesses need three times the space they did previously for the same amount of staff," said Mr Arnold.

Demand for temporary office and welfare space is up by around 50pc, with units let to all types of industry sectors.

Shorter term demand during the pandemic has been boosted by the health sector with units used for coronavirus testing and inoculation centres.

Of their current 6,000 units 90pc are in use - a trend which Mr Arnold predicts will continue.

"We have never paid for advertising - our client base is growing based on recommendations from existing customers. That's really at the heart of what we do - to deliver good value for money, reliably and on time, and with good product and service in equal amounts.

"I think demand in the next few years might be a little below the 30pc increase we are currently seeing - but not by much.

"The plan now is to continue to invest in our business and our people here in Norfolk. We want to double again in size in the next five years and continue to focus on the UK market which still has huge potential at the moment," he added.

"We will be expanding our site in Norfolk and there will be a recruitment drive - but we will also look at expanding our apprenticeship scheme and upskilling our current staff through extensive training." he said.