I STARTED the business in 1980 after graduating from the University of Exeter with a psychology degree.

Having been a student at Exeter, I knew what the university coffee bar offered at that time and it was fairly limited, so I had the idea of making a few flapjacks and vegetarian quiches for it to sell. The rest is history.

It was successful but there was no grand design to start a business. I wasn't looking for additional business for quite some time, but then I would be driving past a wholefood shop, stop and wander in.

After two or three years I'd acquired a small amount of extra business in Exeter. The whole thing had begun to take over the house, so at that point I went into partnership with Bob Strong. We found premises at St Anne's Well Brewery, under the Iron Bridge, where we set up a kitchen.

The partnership ran for a couple of years and then we went our separate ways. We were friends before we went into partnership and we remain friends, but we agreed that our attitudes to business were too different.

I kept the Peck & Strong name because the van had been signwritten by then.

I carried on in Exeter for 12 years and then moved out to Crediton in 1996 and that's when the business really started to grow. When I first moved to Crediton we were employing seven or eight people. Now it's 15.

Up until the last couple of years the business has grown, almost exclusively by canvassing — somebody going to a town and turning up literature and, crucially, samples, as the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

We have about 300 customers — coffee shops, tearooms, garden centres, restaurants, National Trust outlets and some zoos.

Over the years, we have gradually increased our radius and now we go as far afield as Plymouth, Salisbury, Warwick and South Wales with our own transport. We also use distributors in Cornwall and the South East.

Running a business is exciting, challenging and fun, but it can be a bind. There have been times when we have been short staffed, and then the buck stops with me and I have to keep the thing going. I used to work six very long days a week.

I still do wear a lot of different hats, ranging from new product development to working out what to do when a fully stocked delivery van breaks down 300 miles away.

What I like about running my own business is the complete freedom and independence it gives me, but the flip side is the huge responsibility. You can never leave it behind, and you have to have the temperament to deal with that.

Now we've moved again into much larger premises, my ambition is to continue the natural evolution and growth of the company.