IT was not long ago that York-based Hunters Property Group Ltd was fighting for its survival.

Those mad, bad days of 2007/2008 taught those at the helm this was not merely passing market conditions. This was the market and it takes a special person to become inventive rather than yield.

That man was managing director Kevin Hollinrake and now, three years later, Hunters has transformed a trading loss into record profits of more than £770,000. Its locations have increased from 19 to 45 – 142 per cent growth – and staffing numbers fell by just 27 per cent, in spite of a 70 per cent drop in market transaction levels.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Mr Hollinrake has been nominated for Business Personality Of The Year in The Press Business Awards 2010 – and Hunters is being pitched as the Large Business Of The Year.

A driving force for its recovery was Mr Hollinrake’s initiative – his Personal Estate Agency Franchise proposition – in which agents work in their own area and each customer is dealt with on a one-on-one basis, from valuation to completion.

Mr Hollinrake is proud of one by-product. “Customer satisfaction levels now average 97 per cent where it was 95 per cent in 2008,” he says.

He recognises that in his early days he had too little self-discipline to be self-employed, but then five years after taking a job as a trainee estate agent he and John Waterhouse started Hunters and its fortunes soared.

Integral to his philosophy is the notion of “giving back”. With the help of his staff the group raised £350,000 for charity in three years before the property crash.