LONDON, England (CNN) -- Demand for the world's largest, most expensive yachts is on the rise ahead of the Monaco Yacht Show this week.



Ships moored at the Moncao Yacht Show.



"We've gotten the strongest forward order book that we've ever had. It's the best outlook we've ever had since we've started the company," said Toby Allies, Sales and Marketing Director for Pendennis, a leading British manufacturer and re-fitter of superyachts.



Amid the global recession, the worldwide market for luxury goods has plummeted over the last year, expected to shrink 10 percent for 2009 according to global business consultants Bain & Company.



A few sectors, though, have shown surprising strength and even growth amid the downturn, including British-made superyachts.



The British market for superyachts grew more than 15 percent during the fiscal year ending June 1, 2009, according to a new survey. Overall revenue increased to a record $663 million (£410 million) and jobs across the industry increased five percent, according to Superyacht UK, the trade group who conducted the survey.



Since last September, yacht sales tanked in many parts of the world, particularly as cash dried up among clients from Russia and the Middle East. "It was a difficult year, many manufacturers had to cut down on production numbers and give larger discounts," said Georges Tchoumak, Head of Sales and Marketing for Numarine, a manufacturer of superyachts based in Turkey.



In France three of the four publicly-traded yacht companies who make yachts that cost more than $40 million took advantage of the country's bankruptcy laws to stave off collapse, including Rodriguez Group, the company who built Bernard Madoff's yacht "Bull."



Though affected by the recession, the UK industry managed to buck that trend, buoyed by a decline in the pound.



"In the last quarter of 2008 through the end of first quarter 2009 there was virtually zero activity in the large yacht sector," said Tim Wiltshire, Director of Burgess Yachts, a UK-based high-end boat manufacturer.



Wiltshire said that at their worst, transactions were down 60 percent compared with the previous year, but that volume had recently returned, particularly in brokerage sales of used yachts.



Heading into Monaco, manufacturers around the world including the UK now appear poised for a robust rebound.



"There have been a dozen significant sales in the past quarter ... enough of our customers think it's unlikely to get much worse."



But whiles sales have picked up, Wiltshire predicted it could take years for sale prices to reach the premiums of only a few years ago: "Since early summer [business] has picked up significantly ... We are back on par with 2007, albeit at reduced values," he said.



Manufacturers across the UK share Wiltshire's optimism, according to the survey. Ninety-five percent of UK companies questioned rated their prospects for the year ahead either "good or excellent" (56 percent) or "OK" (39 percent).



At Numarine "things are looking better for the last three months," Tchomak told CNN. "We've had more sales in the past three months than in the previous 12 months," he wrote in an email.



At Pendennis, directors have changed their business strategy to accommodate the anticipated growth.



"We've increased our investment in infrastructure for large yachts," said Ailes. "Improving facilities and looking to recruit more people to work on boats up to 70 or 80 meters."



One of the reasons cited for the strength in Britain's superyacht business compared with manufacturers in other European countries has been the declining value of Sterling against the Euro.



Hugo Andreae, Editor-in-Chief of Superyachtworld magazine said that the exchange rate helped, but the high quality of British boats and sustained demand among the world's wealthiest had helped hold up sales.



Andreae also explained that one of the effects of the recession has been to shift demand from new builds to the used boat brokerage and chartering markets.



"There are signs
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