When former builder Geoff Cerrone launched Derby glass and glazing company Campion Glass, Margaret Thatcher had just become Britain's first female prime minister. The country was about to enter a new era of entrepreneurialism and home ownership was encouraged. People who already owned their own homes would be pressed to modernise them with fitted kitchens and bathrooms and, most importantly from Mr Cerrone's point of view, double-glazing.

 

For Mr Cerrone the opportunities were as clear as the glass he was going to sell. And now the company is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Mr Cerrone had previously quit his job on a mobile grocer's van, working the Chaddesden area, to become a builder - a role in which he found himself fitting more and more windows. After several years, he sold his building business and, in May 1980, launched Campion Glass, a company that took its name from the Derby street in which it was based. Initially the company employed only Mr Cerrone and one other worker, making and fitting doors and windows.

 

Demand for double-glazing grew but Mr Cerrone insisted on practising traditional joinery skills, working with wood, as well as the then less-common plastic frames. A quarter of a century later, Campion Glass employs 75 people and has branched into conservatories, in addition to doors and windows. It has moved only once - 24 years ago it took over the former Kenning Motors site, in Brook Street. But it has expanded into various other sites in the city, from where it manufacturers all the windows and conservatories it sells.

 

Mr Cerrone (59) has lost none of his early enthusiasm for the business, according to his son, Mark (33), who is currently sales manager at Campion Glass. "Even after 25 years, his keenness and enthusiasm, as well as the hours he puts in, are something we all admire," said the younger Mr Cerrone. But he is not the only second-generation family member to join the firm. "We have children of employees who have now joined the firm to learn a trade. "The key to our success is quite simply customer care. Over 25 years we have established a first-rate reputation."

 

With the first 25 years now securely under the company's belt, Mr Cerrone is looking forward to the next quarter century, but said he is not holding his breath to take over the reins. "I can't see dad retiring in the foreseeable future," he said.