Two seemingly contradictory images spring to mind when people think of Bradford firm Provident Financial.

One is of the army of mainly middle-aged women from the Provi - who collect the weekly loan repayment in the homes of mainly middle-aged women.

The other is of the growing multi-billion pound UK business which has moved into the big time globally with divisions in Ireland, Poland, the Czech Republic and South Africa.

The two images don't appear to fit together from the outside - but somehow the company has managed to keep its homely image while growing at an amazing rate over the years so that it is now valued at more than £2.2 billion and its share price stands at around 1025p.

This wealth is based on the highly-valued devotion of the company's "agents" - now standing at nearly 11,000 in the UK and abroad - who, since 1880, have been collecting loan repayments weekly by visiting the homes of millions of Provi customers throughout the UK. They lent a total of £805 million to customers this year - an increase of nearly 10 per cent on the previous year.

They often stop from a chat, or even a cuppa, forging friendships with their customers which can last for a lifetime. And the bosses at Provident know that that is where their strength lies.

The agents are supported in the firm's Home Credit Division by 2,644 out of the group's total of 4,000 workers.

Chief executive Howard Bell, pictured, is keen on visiting as many of the staff and agents who work for the company as possible. He describes many staff at the firm, which has its base in Sunbridge Road, as having "Provident quality".

He says: "Wherever I go in the group, I see and hear a sort of "Provident quality" about the people who work for our company - a special quality - which you find in Warsaw, Worthing and the West Country, in Prague and in Pietersberg, in Halifax, in Mixenden and in Bradford."

The Home Credit Division is one of a number of parts to the Provident Financial group which saw its pre-tax profits increase to £145.9 million this year compared with £136.5 million previously. The division itself saw its profits rise by 6.5 per cent to £136.5 million.

The group also has a successful Insurance Division which also did well last year. The division, which includes the Colonnade business which is run from a prestigious office block in Mixenden, Halifax, increased its policy-holders to 516,000 from 477,000 previously and saw its pre-tax profits rise to £19.6 million from £13.7 million.

The firm's chairman John van Kuffler says the success of the business, as it grows internationally, is that it is able to offer to people from different countries a formula which has stood the test of time in the UK.

He said: "We satisfy the requirement of those on low or uncertain incomes for small, affordable and manageable unsecured loans.

"Our home credit service offers a different way of borrowing in which credit is granted on the basis of mutual trust between our customers and our agents rather than on credit scoring techniques applied by most other large lenders."

That's "chairmanspeak" for "Provident quality"

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