A small business venture which began in Bradford in the early 1980s has grown to become a multi-million pound enterprise.

Electrical retailing giant Empire EC Plc was set up in the city by Madan Showan who came to Bradford with his family in the 1960s, left school at 16 and opened his first shop in Bradford in 1982 - selling CB radios.

Before this he had worked at the family business - a grocery shop on Girlington Road.

A year later he went into partnership with Jaswant Singh and the chain of discount electrical retail outlets - known as Empire Electro Centres Ltd - was born.

Last year Mr Showan revealed his company was on target to double its turnover from £100 million to £200 million.

Empire's chairman also revealed the firm would have to take on an extra 150 staff to cope with the firm's rapid expansion.

A major part of Empire's success has been its use of the internet.

The company embraced modern technology a couple of years ago and set up an on-line e-commerce division called Empiredirect.co.uk

The division sells electrical goods at up to 30 per cent less than high street stores on its website www.empiredirect.co.uk

Its decision to trade over the internet, the company said, has been a huge success, and it is now listed as one of the world's top 20 on-line retailers - alongside names such as Amazon and Tesco.

The business, which bucked the national trend on sales this Christmas enjoying massive demand despite the worst trading performance nationally for a decade, hooked into the dot.com revolution.

The award-winning on-line electrical division had more than two million visitors to its website during November and December.

And it processed more than 20,000 orders a week during the period.

Demand was so great for goods such as widescreen TVs, DVDs and personal computers that the company's distribution centre worked around the clock seven days a week over the festive period.

Empire even scrapped a major TV advertising campaign it had planned because it did not want to put excessive strain on its operations.

The e-commerce business recorded its best year last year with sales 160 per cent up on the year before.

Amarjit Singh, Empiredirect's sales director, said: "We are delighted with our performance which has exceeded our planned expectations - we had invested heavily in our infrastructure to enable us to keep up with the demand created and we are in an ideal position to continue to grow at this pace in 2003.

"The future of retailing has to be on-line, but price, quality, choice and customer service must not be compromised.

"We have shown how it can be done. By trading on-line rather than through shops, we are able to keep our overheads in check.

"That means we can invest more on delivering good customer service, which is sometimes hard to find in the high street."

He said internet shopping continued to be one area of the UK economy which was not slowing down.

Mr Singh added: "I think the dot-com bubble bursting is now truly forgotten and buried as UK consumers are now more confident than ever with shopping on-line and are quickly changing their shopping patterns to avoid the expensive parking, the crowded high street and bad weather.

"High Street retailers face a tough future, as customers find other ways to spend their cash.

"There is going to be tough competition for customers, not only from other retailers and the entertainment industry but also from the fast expanding on-line sector too.

"They will also find that profit margins are squeezed further as consumers start to use the easy price comparison facilities that the Internet provides."

Mr Showan added: "We are well on target to achieve our goal of a £200 million turnover by the next financial year.

"This increase in trading will lead to the creation of an extra 150 jobs for the firm.

"We are committed to taking this firm to the top and make it a national name."

Empire won the national E-Trading category of the E-Commerce Awards 2002 last year.

The firm, which won a total of £10,000 in prize money, beat off 200 entries and 11 regional finalists to scoop the winning title in the E-Trading category of the UK on-line for business/Interforum E-Commerce Awards 2002.

Stephen Timms, minister for e-commerce, said at the time: "My congratulations to Empire and all the other winners.

"These companies are breaking new ground within their fields and highlighting to their competitors just what can be achieved through information and communication technologies.

"This year's E-Commerce Awards have shown small and medium sized organisations are leading the way in the digital age, through increasingly sophisticated use of new technologies."

Empire, which currently employs 250 people, created an extra 100 jobs in 2001 when it opened its 200,000 square foot £5 million Canal Road warehouse site.

The storage and office complex is used by the firm as its central warehouse and logistics centre.

The firm has come a long way since it started life as an electrical retail store on Leeds Road, Thornbury.

It now has operations in Bradford, Leeds and Bolton.

Amarjit Singh added: "The internet is an ideal tool for marketing. High street retailers cannot sell everything from just one store but we can sell goods all over the country just from our call and distribution centres based in West Yorkshire.

"Because of the way we operate we can afford to offer low prices to our customers and we believe that by offering them good value for money, people will continue to use Empiredirect."

Recently the firm, which sells more than 3,400 products on-line, invested millions of pounds in expanding its call centre, IT and telephone systems.

With more than 20,000 people hitting Empire's website every day, bringing in an average £100,000 each day, the division has flourished into the third most visited electrical retail site in the UK behind Comet.co.uk and Currys.co.uk - but ahead of Dixons.co.uk

Sales figures at Empiredirect increased from £34 million for the year ending March 2001 to £59 million by last year.

The division expects sales to hit at least £100 million by the end of this financial year.

Listed in The World's 20 Best Online Stores by The Net magazine in 2001, Empire has also been nominated for a raft of other accolades including Best Value Site In The UK.

A recent retailing report found sales of consumer electronic products are expected to grow rapidly over the next five years, with on-line sales estimates of between five and seven per cent market share of the £8 billion electrical market.

With consumers across the globe hungry for electrical items, Empiredirect is now looking to expand into the European market.

It plans to have on-line operations in Germany and France by early 2004.

The company is set to invest more than £5 million in a marketing campaign this year, in a bid to become one of the country's best known names.

Mr. Singh said "Marketing correctly and being competitive is essential to be successful in today's market, we only spent £1 million on marketing last year and achieved a fair turnover, but this year we are spending a lot more. Therefore we expect it to bring a lot more business".

Last summer the business was even visited by Nigel Griffiths, Minister for Small Businesses, who was keen to see the firm first hand after hearing how it was a great example of how businesses could boost their performance using the World Wide Web.

Mr Showan said: "There are no shortcuts to succeeding, it takes a bit of perseverance, a bit of inspiration, lots of hard work and a bit of luck."