COLONY Gift Corporation is the brainchild of just one man, Alan Williams, from Staveley.

In 1979 he decided to rent a barn in Backbarrow, employed seven staff and began to import candles from America to sell throughout the country.

But despite its evident success, for the first eight years the company struggled to muscle in on the market.

Marketing director at Colony Louise McMahon said: "We came into the candle business too early as, even though it was big in America where we imported the candles from, it just wasn't here.

It was an uphill battle for about eight years before we even reached a £1 million turnover."

Operations director Val Johnson added: "Years ago people were just not into candles, but now it is a huge market as they are on everyone' s shopping list."

After 11 years, the company's profit margins began to increase and staff numbers grew.

To cope with the demand, the company moved to a farm building in Lindal-in-Furness and was bought by American firm, Blyth Inc, which is now the largest candle company in the world.

The building was transformed into a mixture of offices, a shop and a large production area, as the company

decided to expand and make its own candles.

Today the company employs 305 staff, from production workers in the factory to qualified accountants and designers.

The factory operates 24 hours a day from Monday morning until Friday night, when it is closes for the weekend.

Each day, on average, 100,000 candles are produced, which amounts to between 24 and 25 million every year, and every day shiploads of the produce are transported to Europe.

Its sister sites in Italy and France are only responsible for getting orders for candles as every customer receives them directly from the Lindal-based site.

The Lindal factory now also stocks everything which compliments candles, from vases and holders to pot pourri, which is imported from India and fragranced at the site.

The motto of the company is to always be ahead of the market by planning its latest designs at least nine months ahead.

Already on display in the showroom, where its customers come and choose stock, is the Christmas line.

Factory manager Len England said: "I think we are successful as our products are of a real high quality and we are competitive and very flexible and we have great staff."

The shop on the site is also a major tourist destination, which attracted more than 200,000 visitors last year.

The company, along with many others, was dealt a large blow when the foot-and-mouth epidemic struck last year.

The company is on farmland so when the news about the first outbreak broke on February 23 last year, only staff were allowed on the site, which meant the closure of the shop.

During the five weeks the shop was closed the company lost more than £120,000 in sales.

The future of the company is looking very strong with a turnover of more

than £30 million predicted for this year alone.

"The latest prediction is that sales in this field are to grow 20 per cent each year until 2005.

It would be nice to think the company's sales will increase so rapidly but the future does look steady and sales for this year are good so far," said Mrs McMahon.