ELITE Business Services is celebrating its 20th birthday tomorrow. The family-owned company began trading on 1 September 1987.

Managing director George Bullock, 64, said it had been a fantastic time seeing the office supplies company grow.

‘We started in a small shop at Ivy Castle, but we grew out of that within months. For the past 19 years we have been at Barras Lane. At first we had only one building, but grew into a second after eight years.

‘It’s fantastic having the family around you all working together. We just grew and grew and it seemed to happen on its own.

‘Everything is about customer service and we relied on word of mouth. We never had anyone going out and knocking on doors for business.’

Mr Bullock set up the company with his wife, Joyce, 63. Both are now in semi-retirement, with their two daughters, Lisa Gilbert and Sarah Lihou, now general manager and financial manager respectively.

Mrs Lihou’s husband, Karl, is storeman.

Mr Bullock said Elite came about because of the demise of the growing industry.

He had to sell his nursery and spent six years working for Jones & Bradburn selling office furniture.

At the same time, Mrs Bullock was running a small secretarial business from home.

The couple then took the decision to start up on their own combining their two fields.

‘I loved working for myself. I loved being my own boss,’ said Mr Bullock.

‘I had a background in furniture and my wife was into secretarial work, so we thought we would use that and sell stationery and office furniture.

‘By sheer accident really we also started selling bottled water. One of my staff saw how businesses in Jersey had started to provide water in the office.

‘As a result we starting offering the same service and now we are probably the largest provider of office water coolers in the island.’

Mrs Gilbert, 37, said it seemed natural to work in the family business. ‘When we were growing up he was a grower and his vinery was at the bottom of the garden. Mum worked from her own office at home, so we were always together.’

She said it was important to build on the success the company has enjoyed supplying Credit Suisse, HSBC and other leading firms.

‘There’s always room for improvement and as long as customers are happy we will supply them with whatever they want.

‘We still have people coming in and saying they didn’t know we were here, which in a way is nice because people are still finding out about us.’