KHALID Saifullah developed an early taste for business when he used to accompany his father carrying out deliveries around the UK.

Watching his father Allah Ditta, the founder of Blackburn-based paper tissue manufacturer PPC Ltd, gave Khalid the drive to venture into business himself.

Today, he has just been appointed chief executive of the Asian Business Federation and he is planning to expand its sphere of influence.

"My father always involved me in the business," said Khalid. "Even when I was 10 years old, I remember him telling me to copy the accounts and understand how the calculations were made."

After completing his degree in manufacturing management in Manchester, he returned to the family business at the age of 24, armed with new ideas, determination and ambition.

Allah Ditta stepped down and handed the steering wheel to Khalid, who took the business in a new direction. "My first role was to break out of the introverted approach used by so many Asian businesses, and introduce a larger variety of products," said Khalid.

"I started to work with design agencies to create brands and implemented new production methods that would make our products more accessible to the whole market"

In two years, with support from his family he turned the company into a multi-million-pound turnover company.

At this point, Khalid said he needed a change in direction. The opportunity came when an idea for a publishing venture, developed with close friends in a kebab shop, came into being.

He left PPC in the hands of his brother Abid and launched Asian Image, the most popular and well-read Asian newspaper in the North West, in Blackburn in 1997.

As the director of publications, he developed the newspaper with Shuiab Khan, the editor, and the paper was sold in 2001 to Newsquest, publishers of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

Khalid is looking forward to his new role with the Asian Business Federation. "I am extremely pleased to be working for the business community," he said. "The ABF has firmly established itself as a key business support agency in the region.

"My role will be to further enhance the ABF and develop strategic partnerships, so that it provides bespoke business support to a wider cross section of businesses, while creating regional wealth and opportunities for many more people.

"The key phrase I will be promoting is that you are in business FOR YOURSELF, NOT BY YOURSELF. The ABF is here to help YOU."