Paddywack Promotional Products is run by Bill Slocum and his daughter Alison, the business withstanding the onslaught of the internet and competition from around the world.

The Slocum family is famous in Canberra - Frank and June Slocum had the pharmacy in Yarralumla for more than 20 years.

Folllowing her husband's death in 1965, Mrs Slocum, now aged 94, continued to operate the Yarralumla pharmacy, before selling it in 1984 to allow the local supermarket to expand.

That same tenacity and skill for small business has been passed on to the Slocums' son Bill and granddaughter Alison who on Thursday celebrate the 25th anniversary of Paddywack.

Established in 1988 and acquired by Bill and his wife Pamela in 1993, Paddywack specialises in customised and branded promotional products, from baseball caps to drink bottles to T-shirts.

A former St Edmund's College student, Bill Slocum worked in radio for 15 years before buying Paddywack. He started as the office boy at 2CC and rose to become its program director, working on behind-the-scenes production.

Pamela and Bill met at 2CC where she was the copywriter. They have been married for 38 years. She ran the successful advertising agency Ideas and Directions and even wrote the catchy jingle for Paddywack:

Paddywack, place your name on anything

Paddywack, will make you famous

Monogrammed in caps, put your name on this and that

There'll be absolutely no one you're the same as

Pamela also received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2010 for her fundraising work in Canberra, particularly for its youth.

Pamela and Bill's daughter Alison, 32, joined Paddywack two years ago, having grown up with the business.

She had travelled the world and was ready to settle down. Alison is now the general manager, helping to steer the business through the next decades. The staff also includes Jason Segrott, who has been with the business for eight years and Nikki Driscoll, who has been there for 11 years.

"Dad has never dreamed too big and that's a good thing," she said. "He's just been happy to keep things ticking along, flying under the radar."

Bill said he had no doubt what the biggest change he had seen in the business - the rise of online competitors.

"Fifteen years ago we competed with other Canberra-based businesses, now we compete with the world," he said.

The business is the middle-man between customer and manufacturer of the products. Bill said he could remember a time when all the T-shirts were Australian-made and when they were the go-to company for Floriade merchandise.

He also says much of his clientele are people he personally knows, such is the family network in Canberra.

"I just enjoy the variety of the work," he said. "We have a really diverse customer base from small business to government departments."

A long-time resident of Deakin, Bill says he has no plans to leave Canberra.

"I've never come across anywhere else I'd rather be,'' he said.