The party, compered by GMTV newsreader and celebrity, Priya Kaur Jones, was thrown by Octavian Group CEO, Sukhi Ghuman, as a thank you to his team, clients and friends of the business whose collective hard work and vision has made Octavian such a success.
At just five years old, the Octavian Group, which began in Sukhi's spare room with a £400 PC, now turns over £10 million, has five directors, 500 employees and provides manned security services and consultancy to blue chip organisations globally from regional offices in Europe, the Middle East and North America.
Along with fine food and drinks, entertainment and speeches of thanks from Sukhi himself and fellow directors Jot Engelbrecht and Mick Burrows, the 250 guests toasted their collective success until the early hours. Time was also taken on the night to recognise three Octavian Security officers who had risked their lives just days before, to prevent armed raids in Manchester at building society branches where they were working.
Sukhi Ghuman, who is himself short-listed for this year's national Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, said of the evening: "We launched this business as we thought that we could improve the standards of security provision and work like blue chip organisations with blue chip organisations. We have achieved this objective and have improved standards year on year and doubled turnover year on year, and tonight is our way of saying thank you to everyone involved.
"Octavian will continue to expand and raise the bar for security service provision, and to this end, we are already planning the tenth birthday party, which if our growth curve continues at 100% year on year, should see us at £320 million turnover! My team would expect no less."
Octavian celebrates its fifth birthday in the same month that it announces the launch of its first Spanish division and its successful involvement in Nottingham's Project Griffin counter terrorism project.