in business by awarding a scholarship to study at Bermuda College.

The recipient of the two-year award, known as the Winter-Cookson, Petty Ltd.

Scholarship, will be announced in January, 1994.

It will be given to someone studying the field of hotel and business administration who is interested in the wholesale and distributing industry.

Mr. Llewellyn Petty, the company's chairman, said: "We are doing this to mark our fiftieth anniversary.'' The firm was incorporated on March 13, 1943. The original petitioners were Capt. Ross Winter, Major Walter Cookson and Mrs. Grace Winter.

Capt. Winter and Major Cookson both fought in the First World War for the Canadian and British armies, respectively, with Capt. Winter, who was then 17, having to lie about his age in order to sign up.

Capt. Winter's son, Keith, is currently president of Winter-Cookson, Petty.

Since Mr. Petty joined the company -- then called Winter-Cookson -- as general manager in 1955, the workforce has grown from seven to its current total of 79. Since then, the company has moved heavily into wholesale food distribution.

In the early 1960s, Winter-Cookson acquired the wholesale operation of J.C.

Cooper & Company and moved into their larger premises on Reid Street East. The company later moved to its current site on Serpentine Road, as its business grew further.

Mr. Petty, 68, said the has firm continued to add new product lines throughout the early 1990s.

Mr. Petty said the wave of mergers which shook up Bermuda's wholesale/distributing industry over the last few years had benefited his company.

The takeover of Weldon and Purvis by BGA and the merger of Butterfield and Vallis had transformed an industry which had fallen on hard times.

Those changes, combined with food company mergers in the 1980s in the US, enabled Winter-Cookson to pick up the Nabisco contract from Purvis in 1990, Planters/Lifesavers from Purvis in 1991, and, in 1993, McCain's Food from Butterfield & Vallis, Reckitt & Coleman from BGA, Green Giant from BGA and it also added the new Snapple Beverage Corporation contract to its list of clients.

Other clients include Unilever de Puerto Rico, Quaker Oats Co., Alpo Petfoods, Hormel International, Marcal Paper Mills, National Fruit Co., International Multifoods, Masterfood InterAmerica, James River Corporation, The Pillsbury Company, Reynolds International and Stouffer's Food Corporation.

"We have lost one major client, what is now Smith Kline Beecham, but overall we've done quite well,'' Mr. Petty said. "The company is in a very good financial position at the moment. It's been making money since the time I joined.'' He added: "Someone called me up the other day to ask me if we were merging with anyone. But I can categorically say that we are not.

"We're just trying to improve our efficiency and do a good job on behalf of our principals.'' The company did not make a single redundancy due to the recession, said Mr.

Petty.

"To a degree, we have a recession every year because of the fall-off in visitors during the winter,'' he said.

In recognition of his services, Mr. Petty's surname was added to the company's title earlier this year.

Winter-Cookson, Petty Ltd. is principally owned by the Petty and Winter families and a trust operated by Murdoch & Company, the nominee holding company of the Bank of Bermuda.

There are some 30 other minority shareholders, some of whom have purchased their stock under a scheme to encourage employee shareholders.

Staff must sell their shares when they leave the firm.