with a plan. He put his plan in action and with lot of hard work and patience, he bought the company seven years ago and became it's president.

He has never looked back since.

Mr. Stanley Sheppard started the wholesale company 23 years ago to sell food and beverages to shops, small stores, hotels and restaurants. In that time the company has seen many changes. Mr. Purvey says owning the business has been a learning experience.

"I was the parts and accessories manager for Volkswagon cars at Masters Limited and I left Masters to come here. Two years before I bought the company we were on Pitts Bay Road, then we moved to Bakery Lane.'' And during that time he's learned a lot.

"I've become a lot wiser,'' Mr. Purvey says. "We had a staff of seven and we have now grown to 13.

"I can remember back in 1969 we had very few computers. All the billing and purchasing was done by hand.

"Now, there are few things that are not comput erised. All our billing, purchasing and accounting is now done by computer. They are a tremendous help and they save man-hours.

Unlike many other businesses that were badly affected during the recession, Mr. Purvey says his operation did not fare too badly.

"During the recession we had to adapt and be more aggressive. We got our salespeople to be more aggressive and sell more. We also used more in-store displays.

"Ever since we started carrying the Royal Mistic Spring Water and Juice three years ago, it's been a tremendous success,'' he says.

But the most change he has seen, has been in the growth of competing businesses.

"I would think that companies will have to become leaner and meaner in order to succeed. With computers we will be able to keep the competitive edge.

Competition just means we have to become even more efficient,'' he says.