Not recession, nor tragic deaths nor looming disaster can burst the bubble of the four determined staff of York Polythene and Packaging on Monks Cross - and a massive new order proves the point.

Talking Pictures, the Thirsk card company, now calls on the firm for the supply of about 100,000 polythene bags a week in which to wrap their cards of varying sizes.

It is the latest in a long list of important York Polythene and Packaging clients in and around the city which includes British Home Stores, the top glassware store Mulberry Hall, and firms like Trustmarque Solutions in Clifton Moor and Pocklington Coachworks as well as antique stores galore.

It all amounts to the gee-whizz fact, deduced with deft stabs on a calculator by general manager Emma Horrox, that the little firm takes delivery of 13.125 miles of bubblewrap every week.

"Gosh!" says Emma staring at the device in happy surprise. "That amounts to 682.5 miles per year, or as the crow flies, from Land's End to John O'Groats and then some!"

Emma and her three-person team are so busy just lately they have hardly had time to plan the 20th anniversary celebrations next April of the firm's beginnings. The founder was the late Bob Emmison who, on the back of his Pocklington market stall, began SE Polythene with partner Nick Spencer, to meet a huge and growing demand for the material.

Within six months the business had moved into an old printing works in Denes Lane, Pocklington, and boomed as industries in the area began to use him as a stopgap supplier of bespoke polythene bags.

Overnight his organisation was regarded as "the polythene people" because the nearest suppliers elsewhere were in Leeds, Hull or Newcastle and he offered the added advantage of delivering one polythene bag, if necessary, rather than with limits of a tonne.

As a result, its goods overflowed into a relatively distant warehouse on Pocklington industrial estate and the logistics became awkward, so he wrapped up the company - if you'll pardon the pun - and re-launched it as York Polythene and Packaging in Walmgate, York, with storage in nearby Wards.

Then in March 1990, with the help of a grant from Ryedale district council, the firm moved to its present site in Kathryn Avenue, Monks Cross and business boomed. At one point it had 500 customers with a turnover of around £500,000.

The partners even diversified by opening a shop in York called Bazilia, specialising in Southn American and African knick-knacks. Then the recessionary wave broke.

The shop was washed away but not the lease and rents. York Carriageworks, which used to order up to £4,000 worth of polythene a year, suddenly closed.

But they carried on because they had to, managing somehow to keep afloat and then... tragedy struck. Bob died. He went into hospital for for an operation and did not recover. He was just 50 years old.

And while staff at the Monks Cross firm were still grieving, Bob's brother, Bill, the office manager, also died.

Bob's schoolteacher widow rallied to help out and keep a watching brief. The staff united to make extra effort and soon the shop lease was ended, the economy began to turn and the orders came rolling in once again.

But as new general manager, Emma is determined not to be complacent. "We are looking at everything we do again and getting back to basics - such as standardising our office procedures and putting computer systems in place along with a detailed price structure.

"Our depot systems have been revitalised and everything is working more smoothly than ever before. but at this stage at least we are not considering charging for what has been a free service.

"Namely, allowing customers who come to our front counter to buy small quantities of sheeting the luxury and satisfaction of popping a few polystyrene bubbles!"