165 new firms registered in Maidstone borough in September, up from 121 in August: a Mill Street restaurant, a Gabriel's Hill shop and six community companies.
A total of 165 new companies were registered at addresses in Maidstone borough in September. That is up from 121 in August, and from 146 in September 2025.
The figures come from the Companies House register. We counted every company incorporated between 1 and 30 September with a registered office inside the borough council’s boundary. That runs from the town centre out to Bearsted, Coxheath, Lenham, Headcorn, Marden and Staplehurst. The register was searched on 5 October.
The new restaurants, shops and pubs
Most new companies are consultancies, builders and online sellers run from a home address. A handful give an address on a shopping street, a forecourt or a pub:
- Francesinha Club of Porto Ltd, registered 23 September at 13 Mill Street, classed as a licensed restaurant
- Zafron Kent Limited, registered 4 September at 42-44 Earl Street, classed as an unlicensed restaurant or café
- Shawarma Guys2 Ltd, registered 2 September at 113 Week Street, classed as a takeaway
- Gogo Grill Ltd, registered 14 September at 310 Tonbridge Road, also a takeaway
- Maidstone Supermart Limited, registered 24 September at 46b Gabriels Hill, classed as a general food shop
- Ritharshana Ltd, registered 11 September at 4-6 Church Street, Tovil, also a general food shop
- Tyre Commando Ltd and Bearsted Car Wash Ltd, registered 1 and 13 September at the Maple Leaf service station on Ashford Road, Hollingbourne, both classed as vehicle maintenance and repair
Two more are in villages to the south. Marden is about seven miles from the town centre and Staplehurst about eight:
- The Unicorn (Marden) Limited, registered 22 September at The Unicorn on Marden High Street, classed as a pub
- Staplehurst Car Valeting Ltd, registered 14 September at Staplehurst Car Wash on Station Approach
Food, drink and hospitality had 13 new companies in all, against six in August.
Six new community interest companies
Six of September’s companies are community interest companies, or CICs. A CIC is a company set up to benefit a community rather than its owners, and it is regulated for that purpose. August had one, and so did September 2025.
| Company | Registered | Trade on the register |
|---|---|---|
| The Healing Horse CIC, Coxheath | 2 September | Physical well-being |
| Triumph Community Hub CIC, Shepway | 11 September | Education, health, social work, arts facilities |
| Melody Foundation CIC, Shepway | 11 September | Social work |
| Beyond the Uniform CIC, Ulcombe | 22 September | Health, social work, membership organisation |
| Tru Identity CIC, Langley | 22 September | Social work |
| Open Arms Pantry C.I.C., Maidstone | 25 September | Other food services |
The register records what a CIC is for in broad trade codes only. It does not say what any of these six will actually run, or where. Triumph Community Hub and Melody Foundation share a registered office on Sutton Road.
What the new firms do
Every company gives at least one trade code when it registers. We grouped the 165 by the first code each lists.
| Trade | New companies |
|---|---|
| Retail, wholesale and motor trade | 28 |
| Consulting and professional services | 26 |
| Building and trades | 20 |
| IT, software and telecoms | 17 |
| Food, drink and hospitality | 13 |
| Health and care | 11 |
| Finance and holding companies | 11 |
| Property: buying, letting or managing | 9 |
| Transport, haulage and delivery | 6 |
| Everything else | 24 |
Health and care rose from three in August to 11. The 11 include a company named as a care home, two home care firms and three of the community interest companies above. Retail includes nine online shops, most of them at home addresses.
“Everything else” includes:
- three well-being and spa businesses
- four education and play providers, and a nursery company
- three metalwork and engineering firms
- two cleaning firms and a drainage firm
- a residents’ management company, the kind set up to run a block of flats
Where they are
High Street ward, which covers the town centre, had the most new companies, with 25.
The top wards:
- High Street: 25
- Penenden Heath: 15
- Tovil: 14
- Grove Green and Vinters Park: 13
- Bearsted and Downswood: 11
- Park Wood and Mangravet: 10
By postcode district, ME15 had 58, ME14 had 48, ME17 had 23 and ME16 had 21. The borough’s part of TN12, around Marden and Staplehurst, had 10.
Six of the 165 gave the same address, Globe House at Eclipse Park on Sittingbourne Road. The register lists 252 active companies at its postcode, ME14 3EN, so it is plainly a registered-office address used by firms that trade elsewhere. Using one keeps a director’s home address off a public database. A registered office is where official post goes, not where the business trades.
How we counted
We searched the register for companies incorporated in September with “Maidstone” or one of the postcode districts the borough covers in the registered office address: ME14 to ME18, ME5, ME9, TN12, TN17 and TN27. That returned 263. We then checked every postcode against the official postcode directory and kept only those inside Maidstone borough.
The 98 we dropped are elsewhere. Most are in Medway (39), Tunbridge Wells borough (26), Ashford borough (11), Swale (8) and Tonbridge and Malling (7). August and September 2025 were counted the same way.
One caution on the year-on-year comparison: the register shows each company’s address today. A firm set up in Maidstone last September that has since moved away is not in the 146, and one that has moved here is.
What it means for you
A registration records an intention, not an opening. Some of these firms will become a restaurant or a shop you can walk into. Others will trade from a spare room, and some will never trade at all. Where we name a street above, it is the address on the register.
Each company name links to its free Companies House record. You can look up any company the same way and see its directors, filings and accounts. It is worth doing before you pay a deposit to a new firm.
When a new food business starts trading, it has to register with the council and will later get a food hygiene inspection. Our monthly Maidstone food hygiene round-up covers the latest ratings. For what is being built around the borough, see our Maidstone planning applications page.
Sources
- Companies House register, advanced search for companies incorporated 1 to 30 September 2026, 1 to 31 August 2026 and 1 to 30 September 2025 with “Maidstone”, ME14, ME15, ME16, ME17, ME18, ME5, ME9, TN12, TN17 or TN27 in the registered office address, searched 5 October 2026. Each named company links to its own register entry, where the incorporation date, address and trade classification are recorded. The active-company count at ME14 3EN is from the same search, filtered to active companies.
- postcodes.io, which serves the ONS Postcode Directory, for the council area and ward of each registered office postcode.
- Trade groups are our own grouping of each company’s first-listed SIC code.
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