Ajax Domestic Spares has marked 40 years in business in style by launching a new showroom in Foxhall Road, Ipswich.

Ajax, originally established by Nigel Amos, is now run by the Allen family, Gary Allen and mum and dad, Diane and Graham.

Now it has a larger showroom for electrical and domestic goods in Foxhall Road, close to the California Club and the Derby Road crossroads.

Last week they celebrated with a special open day, with demonstrations, refreshments and a prize raffle with proceeds going to EACH the children’s hospices.

Diane Allen said: “The business was initially started by Nigel Amos in a small shop in Queen Street, them moving to St Nicholas Street.

“This year marks the 40th year of trading for Ajax Domestic Spares. Our business has survived and achieved so much over our four decades of trading but no more than in the past 18 months. As we moved from our St Nicholas Street premises where we had resided for 38 years, in April 2014 to our new home in Foxhall Road.

“We were flooded in the heavy rains of late May less than six weeks later. We then faced the tough task of an insurance claim while continuing to trade and offer the same level of customer service our customers have come to expect from one of the longest running domestic appliances and spare parts retailers in East Anglia.”

Today, in addition to spare parts, their range includes domestic and commercial floor care equipment, range cookers, a full range of domestic appliances and LED light bulbs. We have just added new fully automated bean to cup coffee makers to our range.”

Diane said she initially went into Ajax as a customer, and then joined the business. Husband Graham later joined the company, followed by son Gary.

Diane added: “When Nigel decided he wanted to retire, we bought the business for our 25h Wedding anniversary. We have been running it ever since.”

Ajax Domestic Spares has been an Ipswich Star and Evening Star advertiser for more than 30 years too.

Diane added: “We had run out of space at St Nicholas Street and, you couldn’t do much with it because it was a listed building. Then there was the rent and rates.

“Here we have our own car parking, for customers, which is important if they just want to pop in for spares.”

Now son Gary is taking the business forward. She said: “Gary was always interested in the business, and now he is taking it to a higher level. We are still getting new business.

Gary Allen, now operations manager, laughed: “I started when I was nine years-old. I always loved to come in really.

“We will always have the spare parts but it is so much more now.

“We have the showroom, offices and warehouse. It’s a larger showroom. We have the domestic appliances but we are not just doing domestic, but commercial appliances too, brands like Hotpoint and Numatic and Sebo, including Numatic ride-on vacuums.”