Sawyer, who started as an order clerk before becoming sales director and then managing director in 1997, said: "When I joined I had been working for the original owner on Saturday's, sweeping the floors and doing a bit of painting. Once I started I knew this was the right company for me.

"The biggest change has been digital: I went to Ipex in the mid 80s, was shown my first colour copier and told 'it will never catch on'. The other big change has been the slow demise of sprocket-fed material for dot-matrix printers. It's still out there but not as much."

RM (Rotary) Services employs a dozen staff in Havant, Hampshire, and sells equipment including punches, litho blankets, spare parts, consumables and accessories to business forms and label sectors. A third of business is international, with customers in Malaysia, Ghana and Nigeria.

"If it punches holes, perforates, cuts paper or labels then we probably do it," said Sawyer. "I enjoy the varied roles but most of all I like dealing with customers. My children think I’m crazy when I analyse a car parking ticket or a business form to see if it was done with some of our spare parts."