It started off as a bit of fun when Andrew Seaward picked up three bottles of duty free booze on his way back from a student holiday in France.

He was studying business at Plymouth at the time, and his fascination with those bottles eventually led him to starting his own spirits collection.

Over the years, as the collection grew, he started playing around with cocktails mixes.

He became so good at it that 18 months ago he and business partner Steve Loxton turned their hobby into a business called The Cocktail Shaker Boys.

They now hire out their mixing abilities to parties, weddings and functions.

Dad-of-three Andrew, 49, said: "The reactions we've had for our parties have been really good. People are really enthusiastic and it makes the evening go with a swing.

"Our's isn't a cheap service but it saves people the hassle of serving drinks themselves."

They do a couple of events a month, with 95 per cent of inquiries coming from women – usually to mark birthdays, major wedding anniversaries, hen parties and wedding receptions.

He and Steve – whose day job is in financial services – have a small staff who they bring in when necessary. All are based in Market Harborough.

Right now the business is relatively small, turning over about £10,000 a year.

By day, Andrew runs a business called To Market, providing training in telemarketing and customer service. He said: "I go out and do training on site. I cover the whole of the UK but in 11 years of trading two-thirds of my business has come from Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

"The business is going well – it's come out of the recession and over the last year is going like a train.

"I came up with the cocktail idea during the downturn when the business was affected enough to make me start looking for ideas that would be recession proof."

He said his first booking was a baptism of fire, serving pre-dinner cocktails to 250 guests at an England Netball Association's gala at the Barceló Hinckley Island Hotel in September 2009.

They were helped by Andrew's wife Sandy, Steve's wife Caroline, and hotel staff.

He said: "That night was great. It was a great way to launch a business."

Clients agree a menu and fixed price in advance and the Cocktail Shaker Boys supply the booze, mixers and glasses.

"For the parties we do, we tend to offer the popular favourites such as the cosmopolitan and mojito.

"We offer clients menus with drinks that they and their guests might know."

A menu for 40-50 guests might cost in the region of £800, although each party is different.

Andrew has been making cocktails at home for 25 years and he has created his own. One, the Icelandic Sea Breeze, is a combination of gin, lychee juice and grapefruit juice which is "strong, but very refreshing".

He said there are three things that make a bad cocktail – poor quality ingredients; lack of care; and chunks of ice watering down the finished product.

He said: "As far as I'm concerned the ice should stay in the shaker. By the way, I'm a regular bloke, apart from this – I don't unwind every evening with a cocktail in my hand."