A BUSINESS which prides itself on the personal touch is celebrating three decades of service.

Jean Eddy established the 2J's travel agency in Ferryhill 30 years ago and the business is still going strong.

Originally developed as a sideline in a record store, the travel business started out as an agent for B-Line coaches.

Mrs Eddy said: "It started as records, tapes and travel. In those days there were very few people going abroad and very few travel agents outside of the big towns."

The record side of the business began to dwindle, especially when supermarkets started selling music, but the travel aspect continued to grow, alongside other ventures.

Mrs Eddy said: "We did home brew kits at one time and that went a bomb during the miners' strike - we still get people coming to ask if we have got any home brew."

Last year, Mrs Eddy moved into premises, on the other side of Market Street and abandoned the records business altogether.

She still specialises in coach travel with most of the major companies, which includes trips to holiday camps, but does also deal in air travel where possible.

She said: "It is a different ball game now. There are such a lot of cheap holidays and we get a lot of people who take four or five day holidays, four or five times a year."

Mrs Eddy, who has lived in Ferryhill since the 1930s, has no intention of retiring.

She said: "I don't have any fancy gear, a fax machine is as up-market as I get, I still do a lot with pencil and paper, and it's the personal touch that people like."