THE boss of Bolton telecommunications and IT specialist Digicomm is set to shout the attributes of his company from the rooftops.

Managing director and founder Mark Pollitt is targeting an annual turnover of £5 million within the next three years.

Mr Pollitt has spent 14 years building the company up after launching it as a one-man-band troubleshooting operation.

His business has grown from a revenue base of £60,000 in his first year of trading — when he was a star pupil of the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme — to £1 million today.

But that growth has been thanks mainly to referrals and recommendations from existing clients.

The 41-year-old former Smithills High School pupil has been satisfied with what he calls organic growth over that time, but he is now aiming for a new sales team of three to make his strategy a little more proactive.

Mr Pollitt said: “The referrals and recommend-ations are pleasing because it means we are doing something right for our existing clients.

“The good thing is that we are now a solid company.

“Some companies in our sector have gone from a turnover of nothing to £14 million very quickly and then gone bump.”

Mr Pollitt found himself in the telecoms and IT business almost by accident, but it was his ethical code and conduct which proved attractive to companies in the sector before he eventually struck out on his own.

“I left school and went to work for Bolton Council’s Housing Department and became a time-served joiner and carpenter,” he said. “Then I went down south to help a friend do some cabling work.

“The company was impressed with how I conducted myself and they offered me a job.

“The firm, Annodata then had a turnover of £7 million and that has now grown to £115 million.

“I was then headhunted by the second biggest telecoms provider in the world — Avaya — and was on board with them for a few years as their European Technical Specialist.”

But a visit home to his Bolton family changed the course of his life when he met his South African-born fiancée Regan Owens.

The couple now have three children, Megan, Jessica and Jocelyn, aged 12, seven and five.

Digicomm specialises in telephone systems, calls, lines and data services, video and audio conferencing, IT systems and infrastructure, and mobile and getaway solutions.

Included in its customers are Bolton Arena, Bolton FM Radio, Hoot Credit Union, Bolton Edwards Lettings, Bolton, Assembly Solutions, neighbouring firm Harrison Lubrication, Orchard House Foods in Corby, Etrop Grange Hotel, near Manchester Airport, and Insider Techologies.

Digicomm is also a patron of Bolton Lads and Girls Club and Mr Pollitt is embarking on a 42-mile cycle ride round Rivington and Anglezarke in aid of local charity the Lagan Foundation on April 27.