The first customer to walk throught the doors of double glazing firm Davies and Tate next to Eastbourne station wanted to buy a return ticket to Victoria.

Fortunately, it was not a bad omen for the business which is now celebrating 25 years of success.

Before opening the showroom, Rodney Tate ran a record shop on the site and Phil Davies was hoping for career in pop music having raised money to record a Christmas single.

It failed to get into the charts so the two teamed up to start the double glazing firm.

Mr Davies, who runs the firm from offices and showrooms in Uckfield, said: "We started business in the summer of 1976, the hottest summer for years and double glazing was not high on people's lists of priorities.

"At first, we were agents for a local manufacturer but we felt it would be better for us to go it alone and, from the summer of 1978, we started to sell and install the windows."

By that time the firm had showrooms in Hastings and Bexhill. A fourth showroom opened in Tunbridge Wells in 1980, soon to be followed by Crawley and Ashford, Kent.

The the real expansion came when it developed the Window Fitter's Mate business, which now has 16 depots across the country supplying the windowfitting business with tools and equipment.

It now accounts for more than 50 per cent of the firm's business.

The firm is the biggest buyer of bespoke windows in the UK.

It supplies plastic windows and sash windows for properties where owners want traditional styles.

Mr Davies said: "Over the years this has been a very up and down business.

"Luckily there have been more ups than downs.

"One way of reducing our exposure to the whims of the market has been by not becoming involved in manufacturing.

"We sell and fit double glazing and conservatories but we don't manufacture.

"Customers know we have been here for a long time and will be here for a long time."