THREE lifelong friends have made the deal of their lives by winning a contract worth more than £100 million that will generate 150 jobs.

Peter McDonnell, Chris Gargan and Mark Ratcliffe -co owners of Whitehawk FC - have secured a deal for their company the KSD Group to look after thousands of properties up and down the country for the Co-Op Group.

From growing up in the city together and starting out in with sites in Western Road and Moulsecoomb the trio are celebrating the mammoth deal and continuing their huge rise.

Peter, who s MD of support services, said it is great news for the staff and Brighton’s economy.

He said: "We are really proud and excited to have won this huge contract.

"It’s hard to put an exact figure on the value of the deal but it is fair to say it is worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

"We are very clear why we are steadily expanding – we meet the needs of our clients quickly and with clear solutions.

"We have a strategy which hopefully will see us expand more but for today we are just very pleased and extremely proud to have secured another key contract."

Peter, alias 'Ned', and Mark, better known as 'Ted', followed the Auf Wiedersehen Pet route by starting with a building company in Germany.

They came home and the trio started working together in 1993, running waste recycling, building and property firm Kingspan in Western Road.

And one of its main projects was turning the old bus depot in Moulescoomb Way - where McDonnell's grandfather used to work as a driver - from a derelict site into a recycling centre.

The new company KSD was formed in 2003 by the three friends and business partners Peter, now 48 and Mark, 65, were building contractors while Chris, 54, was an on-site plasterer.

Thirteen years on, KSD employs more than 300 staff with offices in Brighton, London, Leeds and Glasgow, and that figure will now rise to around 450.

The KSD Group – based at Patcham Place on London Road – has been rapidly expanding in recent years.

It had already secured contracts with some of the big giants including Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Whitbread.

The trio hit the headlines back in 2006 when The Argus revealed they had ploughed £50,000 into the bid to secure the future of Brighton and Hove Albion when the club faced financial crisis.

The trio started on a 10-year expansion plan in 2015, and Chris Gargan, director and company secretary, said the success is down to sheer hard work and the company being flexible and prepared to diversify.

They specialise in maintaining buildings, facilities management support and delivering capital works projects.

The new long-term deal with the Co-Op Group will see them looking after more than 3,000 of its premises across the country, including retail shops and Funeralcare branches.

Chris said: "We currently provide support in more than 10,000 sites across the country. We have ambitious plans to grow and we are very excited, both with this new contract and also various opportunities for the future.

"We have great people working for us. We also have a vast network of loyal and skilled partners, suppliers and contacts."