What they do: Don't have a breakdown designing your own stationery - there's a company that can do it all.

Home computers routinely come with what salespeople call software bundles. Somewhere on those discs is usually the wherewithal to allow you to design your own stationery, so given the number of pcs around, post boxes should be bursting with fancy personalised letterheads.

They're not, of course, because who could be bothered figuring it out and then when you do, you never have the right paper. Then there's the fact, well-known to the people that sell stamps, that we're sending fewer letters.

Late last year Eleanor Gaire was looking to expand her graphic design business and hit up on the idea of developing a range of personalised stationery. She'd already worked up stationery for several corporate clients, and realised there could be a market for it.

One client who had just had a new house built supplied a copy of the plans which were reduced to make a stationery-friendly sized image for his home letterhead, another just wanted her address with an image of her front door on some good quality notepaper.

Before she took the business any further, she did some market research and found that while people seem to write letters less frequently, they want something decent to write it on. Every small printing company will print up letterheads but Gaire felt that the way to approach it was to provide an easy way of ordering through high street stationery and card shops and to present the personalised stationery in an old fashioned but highly practical way, in a box.

In each box is 100 sheets of personalised letterhead, 20 continuation sheets, 50 personalised cards and 150 envelopes. There's a limited choice of three colours of good quality paper and a choice of four type styles. She branded the stationery "Lavery" and came up with a smart deep blue box. The choices at the moment only cover simple type - if you want your plans or hall door on your letterhead or any other image for that matter, it's not yet an option in the Lavery range.

"I have plans to extend the range in the future," she says, "but for the moment the important thing is to get the ordering system right and see what people want. I took advice from several people, including the people in the Pen Corner shop (in Dublin) who have such extensive knowledge of this area. All the advice was to keep the choice smart, but limited, and make it easy for people to order."

The stationery can be ordered through a number of outlets and buyers simply fill out an order form. The box of personalised stationery is then delivered to them or they can collect it from the shop where they placed the order. Since the brand's launch last October she has noted that the bulk of orders are coming from people in their late twenties and earlier thirties.

"I think people realise that, if you've been entertained at a friends house, it's not good enough to text your thanks the following day," she says. "It's simply much nicer to send a card or a note. "Personalised stationery used to be a sort of snobby thing, but I've been careful to price the box at an affordable level."

At €158, a Lavery box of stationery with your friend's new address would make a generous and particularly thoughtful housewarming gift.

Lavery stationery is available from the Pen Corner, Dublin, Guinness Gallery, Foxrock, and Swalk outlets. For more information telephone: 01-2930722, or visit www.lavery.ie