Talking to Jill is easy and, while she "doesn't suffer fools gladly", her obvious communication skills and empathy, added to a good head for business, are key to her all-encompassing role running ISE.

Jill is a stickler for detail. "I'm a Virgo," she tells me. "And so is David. That's why we get on so well. I like things done right. I cannot bear things that aren't. If I'm going to do something, it has to be 100 per cent."

David is industry stalwart, David Sanders-Smith, who started I S Enterprises (named after his wife, Ineke Smith), in 1971. Jill joined him in 1984, initially as his PA.

When we talk about "highs", Jill says that being made a director was the icing on the cake. As a mother of two (and grandmother to four girls under three), work has always been a balancing act. "But I feel that it's made me the person I am today. You learn to juggle a million things at once."

Jill freely admits that over the years, her life and the Sanders-Smiths have become intertwined. She's shared many a holiday with Ineke and her daughter, Sara Sanders-Smith, who runs Result, the family clothing company launched 15 years ago.

Jill is so integral to the business that any talk of retirement is rejected wholesale. "I was 65 in September," says youthful looking Jill. "I should be retired really, but every time I mention it, David says "Whaaat!?" While Jill has been a mainstay of the business, it must have been a steep learning curve. "To be truthful, we did everything. I used to order the fabrics, the zips... where textiles come in you learn very quickly, and if you've done it yourself, you understand what you're asking other people to do."

"When we had an order to go out, we'd sometimes be there until 7 or 8 o'clock at night, packing boxes to get them out of the door - David as well. And when you grow up with a company, there's not very much about it that you don't know," she continues. "If the toilet flooded, you got the mop out and mopped it up. We have gone over four decades now and there's not many who can say that."

"When I started with David in the early '80s we worked in an office above the garage at his house," continues Jill. "Then, in 1985, he designed a purpose built warehouse and offices which we moved into and which we very very quickly outgrew. It was just 200 yards from where we are now."

In 1990, the present building was bought. Recalls Jill: "It was an old removals company - just a concrete shell. But David's very talented with designing buildings and interiors and in one year, he'd had it refurbished inside and out, looking like a new building. He should have been an architect.

"He did four more after that, all located within 100 yards all round us, linked by wireless network to our main computer. These are used for our main storage and also for storage and distribution that we handle for customers. In all, it's over 100,000sq ft."

Jill's background had always been in administration. These days, she's a Jill of all trades, overseeing everything from sales and human resources to the warehouse operation. The company has a massive £4 million worth of stock, offering 300 products from 10 leading promotional clothing brands.

Before ISE, Jill had worked as a PA. A move from Norwich to Essex saw her open a fashion boutique in West Mersea. "I loved it for about the first year, but dealing with the general public at large in a retail environment was not really my thing." After two years, she sold the business. Answering an advertisement placed by David she was offered a job on the spot.

"There were only three of us when we started - me, David and a van driver who did the warehousing and everything. When we moved here, it gradually built up and I have pretty much worked alongside David while the company was growing," recalls Jill. "We took on a junior to help me and now there is a team of over 50."

ISE started its own production near Old Street Station, London, in 1975, before moving to Luton in 1979.

In 1986, ISE took over a Courtaulds production in Colchester, and the main subcontractor in Birmingham - which Result still funds today - was moved to India in 1995. The original ISE product lines were bespoke jackets, adds Jill. "We did a stock lines brochure which was literally two pages! Compared with our brochure today - which has 100 pages - it was a leaflet!

David was out on the road for much of the time, remembers Jill. "I was left with the office side and he was going abroad and visiting all the top companies and the orders were coming in from there. We didn't have a rep on the road. It was just David who quite often combined a delivery at the same time."

The company acquired its first embroidery machine in 1975, which both David and Sara learned to use, and ISE took on the distributorship of other brands.  ISE is now a stock distributor but still maintains production of special orders and has specialist staff to deal with this aspect.

David launched the Result Clothing Company 15 years ago. It has become a cornerstone of ISE's brands.

It proved a real shot in the arm for ISE. "It was wonderful," recalls Jill. "If someone came to us, such as Audi or Volkswagen, and said we want a jacket with our logo on, instead of us having to make one from scratch, we were able to say we can offer you this, this and this, and of course, it's a stock item."

I ask Jill about ISE's strengths. Without hesitation, it's longevity, she says. "It's the length of time we have been in the business and the experience that we have generated. "And building a team of other long standing staff, many having completed between 10 to 20 years of service.

"I also think we have a lot of established, loyal customers who go back a long way with us," she adds. "But to be 100 per cent truthful, it is all about confidence and how fast you can turn around orders from concept to despatch." The massive stockholding has also kept customers coming back for more. But has that longevity stood ISE in good stead during the recession, I ask. "Yes, and we have highlighted that with our advertising campaign this year," adds Jill.

She breaks off to show me some visuals of the latest ads which take a fun look back over the last four decades.

Jill enjoys devising the ad campaigns before handing the design element over to the ad agency. An earlier ad campaign devised by Jill - which went down a storm and ran for three years - portrayed animals wearing some of the products distributed by ISE. From meerkats to polar bears, it severely tested the creatives but proved to be a winner that eventually became a calendar.

I wonder what lessons Jill has learned over the years and whether there are any challenges left?

"I have learned absolutely everything," she says. "I have said that when I do eventually retire, I could write a book - life with IS Enterprises. It

would make very interesting reading."

She says that she is not fazed by anything. "I don't think there's any aspect of the business that I don't know." After four decades in business, Jill has seen recessions come and go, but the current one has been tough, she admits.

"The last time we were in recession, we didn't suffer. We actually increased turnover. This time, it is a lot different and I do think there's a lot of people out there who are struggling to stay in business."

She refuses, however, to be drawn into a price war and says such tactics are more likely to destroy companies.

Recently, ISE has changed its storage and stocking systems, moving them into one big despatch warehouse. "I think it will run so much better, and much more efficiently, under one roof," says Jill. A system of pickers and checkers ensures that the error rate is kept to a minimum.

I ask Jill about her happiest memories.

"I have so many," she says. "But one of the highlights would the big millennium ball that I organised. All the staff and their partners came and obviously lots of customers and suppliers from all over the world."

And what of the future? What is there left for you to do?

"I would like to continue to work," she adds. "I think I will know when to stop. I want people to remember me as I am - I don't want them to think of me as that silly, doddery old woman. If you know your own limitations, it stops you, possibly, from making a fool of yourself!"

As I leave, Jill tells me it has been nice to see the company, which she feels so much a part of, continuing to prosper, with the youngsters coming up behind. "We're moving onwards and upwards," she adds.

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