A YORK salesman is on the verge of launching a national Internet mail order company offering cut-price digital home entertainments.

A Digital World Ltd goes "live" on Thursday - and Gordon Bell, who has been carefully assembling his operation at the Fishergate Centre, York, over the past six months, is banking on generating between £250,000 and £1 million in its first year.

Mr Bell, who lives in South Bank, York, also hopes to employ five permanent staff after the first six months

He has already received cash backing to the tune of £10,000 from HSBC and the Prince's Trust start-up fund, plus support from the Young Business Project and training help from York Business Development.

He calculates that eventually full-time staff will be needed to help with the sales and distribution of digital entertainment products, ranging from compact discs and Sony Playstations to hardware like portable DVD players, recordable CD players, digital cameras and hi-fi televisions.

Buyers and browsers can access his secure website at www.adigitalworld.co.uk and later via the Evening Press website at www.thisisyork.co.uk - or order by fax or phone.

Mr Bell, who for six years worked in the distribution and sales department of BSS plumbers at Clifton Moor and later as a national sales executive for a Huddersfield manufacturer, has forged links with all the major distributors in the digital industry, including EMI, Vital and Jack Of All Games.

For the past year he has been sales manager at Rhoco Engineering at Storwood, near Elvington.

A receiving and dispatch warehouse has been set up "somewhere in North Yorkshire" and ultimately he plans to open another in the South of England.

He also plans an advertising blitz for Thursday's launch in national magazines specialising in DVD and online offers.

Mr Bell said: "In order to hit my minimum turnover target of £250,000 I'll need about 400 orders per week and I reckon that should be easy to attain."

PICTURE: Gordon Bell