THE director of a town centre interpreters firm which was dreamt up around a family dinner table said he is thrilled to have brought the business back to Bolton.

Paul Manivannan is the director of Debonair Languages — a firm that supplies interpreters and translators and was set up by his father who came to Bolton from Sri Lanka in the 1970s.

Debonair currently has about 1,000 interpreters on its books and has ambitions to increase that number by ten times.

Paul’s father, Visvalingam, aged 61, is known to all as Mani and came up with the business idea after doing some work translating his native Tamil language for the police.

Paul, a former CID detective in Salford, explained: “He originally worked as an engineer but after retiring I got him some work translating for the police.

“He was doing a course and met lots of different interpreters and ended up putting people in touch with them for more work.

“Then about eight years ago he was sat at home in Bromley Cross and realised there was a gap in the market, so that is when the business was first formed.”

Since then Debonair has seen a lot of changes take place — five years ago Mani moved the business to Manchester, where it started to establish itself, forming links with major public services.

Paul, aged 33, decided to join the firm about four years ago and as his dad took a step-back he moved into the director position — with his first move to bring Debonair back home.

He said: “My feeling is with Bolton and I didn’t see a reason for us not to be here — everything we want to achieve is here and we are really pleased to be giving jobs to local people.

“The idea is to employ people from the town, who will earn money and spend it in the town.

“We currently have 1,000 interpreters and if that number reaches 10,000 in the next year then that won’t be too many.”

The firm has set up in St Andrew’s Court in the town centre and is forging links with institutions including Bolton Council and The University of Bolton, but Paul said he is also targeting the private sector.

He added: “Many big language firms just go for central public sector contracts — I am keen to push our business with the private sector, such as solicitors firms and charitable organisations too.”

He has also enrolled all of his interpreters on a course to get a BTEC qualification in customer service, adding: “We are a small company but I am looking for some wiggle room in the market and for me that is based on quality — our interpreters will be offering a friendly, personal and bespoke service.”

He said Debonair is a family business and he and his father insist on making all the staff feel part of that family.

He added: “That is a big thing for my dad, he still does every single induction and knows everyone on a personal level.

“It is essential that we make our staff feel valued — I might be the director but the interpreters are everything to me, they are the whole business.”

For information visit debonairlanguages.com