Celebrations are just like buses - they always come in threes, according to Sussex businessman Jim Hawkins.

This week, Jim, managing director of Portslade-based Applied Kilovolts, is celebrating the despatch of his 50,000th high-voltage power supply unit, a new appointment and the division of the company into two parts, one for volume products and the other for specialist products.

Set up in a garage 14 years ago, Applied Kilovolts now has a staff of 17 and is currently looking for more. The company has an annual turnover of more than £3million.

The power supply units manufactured at its plant in Eastbrook Road are shipped around the world.

Mr Hawkins said 40 per cent were directly exported and most of the rest were supplied to other UK manufacturers who incorporated them into their own products and then exported them.

He said: "I well remember when the first unit was sent off. I took it down to the post office in the saddlebag of my bicycle.

"Since then, the company has grown by more than 20 per cent each year and I believe we are now the largest volume high-voltage supply manufacturer in the UK."

Within a year of starting up, the company moved into a former butcher's shop and then took over the empty grocery store next door.

Its power supply units are used in some of the world's most advanced scientific machines where microscopic accuracy is vital, for instance, for measuring pollution in parts per billion, drug research and testing sportsmen and women for banned substances. Production has increased steadily over the years and last year 10,000 units were completed.

Mr Hawkins said: "To manage production more efficiently, manufacture is being divided into two divisions and, as a result, Mark Savill has joined the company as our volume products production manager."

Mark has experience of management in the electronics industry and is currently studying for an MBA. He will be using Applied Kilovolts for his case studies of high growth companies.

Also celebrating this week is technical development manager David King, who has been with the company for ten years.

His current project is a high-voltage X-ray power supply.