East End Sawmills Ltd has been serving the timber needs of Glasgow and the Strathclyde area for approaching 50 years. The company started by Robert Frew in 1955, now has three generations of the family involved in its running, and employs 25 staff.

''We've been here so long that people can tend to forget us sometimes,'' says managing director Stewart Frew. ''New places open up, others close again; we've gone on and on. We have expanded, and now do different things to what we did in the past. Over the past year or two, we've put in new machinery to offer services we have never provided before.''

At 367 Dalmarnock Road, Glasgow, East End Sawmills' business premises since the company began trading, stockholding has increased in recent times, and in addition to servicing the needs of the retail trade, it has started to supply the wholesale trade. A new sales manager, Bill Ewing, has been brought in to look after this latter part of the business.

''There's been constant expansion over the past five years in particular,'' says Frew, ''and this has been driven by our customers. The more customers you get, the more stock is needed along with more space to store it, and people to put the materials out.''

The #70,000 or so invested in new machinery in the past 12-18 months has given the company, for example, the capability to cut plywood or MDF panels in bulk - and much less labour-intensively - making the price more competitive to the bulk purchaser.

''We have also been updating machinery,'' Frew continues. ''For instance, we've installed a couple of new machines which do our mouldings for us, dado rails, skirtings, architraves and so on. We can reproduce the old Victorian skirtings and facings, right through to modern designs in MDF or hardwood.

''It's difficult to get people with the skills to do it, but we have two staff here who are good at it. The machinery is still complex, but modern technology has made such work a bit easier, and therefore less costly to produce.

''Today, a shredding machine chips our waste, which then goes to the chipboard manufacturers - recycled, instead of being wasted.''

A new computer network with seven machines throughout sales and the warehouse, keeps everything up-to-date and moving. ''Now we can see at the drop of a hat, exactly what we want. With nearly #500,000 of stock, and 2500 different lines, lengths and sections, it does make life easier. We had the system written specially for us; it's taken three years to get it to do exactly what we want - and it's fully year 2000 compliant,'' says Frew.

Completed last year at Dalmarnock Road, was an 8000 sq ft storage shed, constructed at a cost of #60,000, at the rear of the premises. This was built to enable the company to move into importing hardwood in a bigger way than in the past, to supply joinery manufacturers. With Bill Ewing in place, wholesaling mainly doors, hard and soft woods, the materials are due shortly, to make this expansion fully operational.

A major advantage offered since East end Sawmills' inception to both business and the general public, is a highly customised service. ''No matter what a customer wants in timber, be it a piece of plywood cut to a certain size, or 500 sheets, he can get it from us. No-one needs to make do with the stock size or the stock sheet,'' says Frew.

''If someone needs a piece of timber of a specific width by a specific thickness, they come in and we'll machine it for them while they wait. It saves all the hassle in the home, of hand planing and saws.

''We don't want to just sell them the easy wood, we want to offer a full service. Our trade counter is open to anyone, 8.30am-4.45pm on weekdays, and on Saturdays from 9am-12.30pm.

It offers a full customised service while you wait - I don't think you can get that service anywhere else in Glasgow - maybe even in Scotland. There is also a full range of joinery and ironmongery requisites, everything anyone could possibly need for every job around the house, major or minor.''

Recognising potential difficulty in meeting trade counter hours, East End Sawmills also offers a cash-on-delivery service. Within Glasgow and East Kilbride, for an order under #200, delivery is #8.50; above that, it's free.

Outwith these areas, variable rates apply, depending on order size. The company has two lorries for deliveries throughout Scotland, made without charge, to its 400 business account customers.