A WORCESTER stockbroking firm has celebrated 10 years of successful trading in the Faithful City.

Harris Allday, in Foregate Street, opened in October, 1993 and is "still going strong", having built up a network of clients in Worcestershire and neighbouring counties.

Harris Allday can trace its beginnings back to 1837, when Nathaniel Lea - a young surveyor on the staff of railway engineer George Stevenson - started trading in railway stocks from Bennett's Hill, Birmingham.

He went on to become joint founder of the Birmingham Stock Exchange, in 1845.

The current firm - an independent partnership regulated by the Financial Services Authority - is the result of a merger between Harris Allday Smith & Co and N Lea Barham & Brooks back in 1973.

Individuals

Broker Bruce Burnett said the company's success hung on its ethos of always treating clients as individuals.

"Everybody is viewed as an individual - we don't take a broad brush approach," said Mr Burnett, who was a Royal Air Force officer for 18 years before becoming investment director for John Coverdale Associates, in 1983.

"We match the investment portfolio to the individual and their own circumstances."

Administrative manager Sheila Major has worked with Mr Burnett since 1983, and broker James Holroyd joined the firm in 2001.