VICTOR Crolla, who died at home in his sleep last month at the age of 90, was the main driving force and visionary behind the present-day success of Edinburgh delicatessen Valvona & Crolla.

Crolla was the third child of Alfonso and Maria Crolla, Italian immigrants from the remote hillside village of Picinisco in the Abruzzi mountains of the Apennines, south-east of Rome. Alfonso Crolla was fighting in Libya for the Allies at the time of his second son's birth, having been called up twice in four years by the Italian army following his arrival in Scotland in 1906.

His mother took no time off after her son's birth from running the family's ice-cream parlour, The Tiffin, on Easter Road, close to Hibernian's football ground.

Little Victor spent his early days sleeping in a top drawer in the back of the shop while his mother worked long hours serving in the front shop.

It was one of this funny, charming and optimistic man's favourite family jokes that he was "always top drawer material", despite his humble beginnings.

At the age of 14, he joined his elder brother Domenic in the family firm and together they steered the business towards importing Italian foods in order to serve the growing Italian population in the capital. Their warehouse was situated in the Grassmarket, a well-known hub of activity for the community because it reminded them of an Italian piazza.

In 1934, Victor and his father went into partnership with an elderly Italian grocer called Benedetto Valvona, who had been running his business since the 1860s. Valvona & Crolla was thus founded. Just two years later, they moved from the Grassmarket to Elm Row on the edge of Edinburgh's NewTown, selling wine by the barrel, tomatoes and imported cheeses to the extended Italian community around Edinburgh.

The enterprise had barely established itself in Elm Row when, in 1940, after Italy declared war on the Allies, all the male members of the Crolla family, including Victor, were rounded up, arrested as enemy aliens and interned.

Like thousands of other UK born men of Italian descent, Domenic was sent to Canada while Victorwas dispatched to a camp on the Isle of Man.

Their father, Alfonso, was one of 743 men who died aboard the unmarked cruise ship the Arandora Star, when it was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by a German U-boat en route to an internment camp in Canada.

Though devastated by the death of his father, 25-year-old Victor typically made the best of his internment on the Isle of Man, viewing the period as "his university education".

The camp was populated by a wide variety of highly-skilled and educated men, and during his five years there, he read many of the classics, established a lifelong interest in classical music and studied French and German.

When Victor Crolla returned from the Isle of Man in 1945, he faced a stark choice. He could take the family back to Italy or pick up the remnants of his business. He opted for the latter course of action.

During the war years, a few of the Scottish employees of the firm had maintained the building, so he decided to revive the Elm Row business, piling imported Italian produce high at low cost to keep ScotsItalians stocked up with their favourite produce. At this stage of the business, Crolla also introduced his famous delivery service to Italian families the length and breadth of Scotland.

Ever mindful that Italians were assimilating into the wider community, Crolla knew the future lay in introducing Italian produce to Scots and he also realised there were many returning soldiers who had acquired a taste for Italian food and drink while fighting there during the war.

His foresight established a business model for delicatessens throughout the country.

Crolla's personal charm, entrepreneurial energy and business acumen were his calling cards. He was a shopkeeper to his fingertips and ingrained in the legions of young Italians who came to work in the shop from his home village the mantra that the customer should always leave happy.

He steered the business through the tough years of 1970s, which saw the dominance of supermarkets threaten the livelihood of small independent shops. The decision to specialise in upmarket produce, such as fine wines, cheeses and cured meats from small independent producers, was prescient and led the shop to its present status as one of the most famous delicatessens in the country.

Victor Crolla finally retired from business in 1985 at the age of 70. He never married but was a classic entrepreneur, devoted to his customers and the family who carried on the family business with his blessing. During his long retirement he continued to be a mentor to his nephew Philip Contini, who with his wife Mary now run Valvona & Crolla, as well the many family members who went on to establish their own enterprises.

His business has now expanded to encompass a restaurant and a section producing home-made bread and cakes, while the pioneering delivery service has mushroomed into a successful online business in its own right, ensuring the name of its irrepressible co-founder will live on.

Victor Crolla, businessman;

born September 22, 1915, died November 17, 2005.