Sacha Jones got the shock of her life when she went to see a 20-foot poster she thought was advertising the firm for which she works.

For when she came face to face with the image, she found it was a giant-sized picture of her and some of her colleagues from Bradford-based Supplies Team - an arm of ISA International.

Sacha, 21, of Wilsden, who was recently voted for by her work colleagues as The Face of Supplies Team, had been told in recognition of her achievement her photo would be used to front a massive regional marketing initiative.

"I thought I was going to see an advert for the company and was really taken aback when I saw myself staring back at me," she said.

Sacha was taken to the hoarding site by the firm in a white limousine and was given champagne on the journey from Little Germany, where Supplies Team is based, to Thornbury Roundabout and Kirkstall Road in Leeds where the hoardings are sited.

A sales account manager with Supplies Team, a supplier of computer equipment and office supplies, Sacha is familiar with her company's promotional activities and was fully prepared to see photographs of herself in sales brochures and in other marketing literature.

"I'm sure people will recognise me in the street and there will be a lot of feedback from people who see the adverts," she added.

Bosses at Supplies Team, which has its UK headquarters in Vicar Lane, had managed to keep their plans for the promotional poster campaign secret from Sacha since she earned the title of The Face of Supplies Team.

She won the accolade after being voted for in a special competition open to the company's 200 employees.

The competition marked Supplies Team's first anniversary and aimed to find the employee who best represented "the true spirit of the company".

Featured along with Sacha on the poster, located at the Thornbury Roundabout in Leeds Old Road, are four of her work colleagues - Elliott Horn, Adele Ingham, Adam Owaka and Martine Marsden - who were runners-up in the competition.

Supplies Team marketing manager Quintin Komaromy said: "Since its launch Supplies Team has gone from strength to strength, with much of its success down to the people who work here.

"We see those who won as our biggest stars, deserving of the limelight. Keeping details of the competition prize under wraps was our biggest challenge - although we had hinted at a 'framed picture'."

Supplies Team's mother company ISA International is Europe's largest specialist supplier of computer and electronic consumables to the corporate market.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.