Label focus: all around the world. (A&R).

With one of 2002's surprise hits to their name (courtesy of DJ Alligator) and a second this week with Flip n Fill's reissue of True Love Never Dies, Blackburn-based All Around The World is clocking up the hits faster than any other independent this year.

The success of the two-man company -- which has been in operation for 10 years -- is all the more impressive given the hurdles it faces. "We suffer from a lack of media exposure, which makes it difficult for stores like Asda or Woolworths to be aware of our records," says label co-founder Matt Cadman. "Apart from The Box -- which has been really supportive -- we get very little exposure to drive retail support."

AATW's success has also been achieved without support from Radio One, which Cadman says has playlisted just one of the company's 50 hits to date. "We went through a stage of being upset by not getting on Radio One, but then it dawned on us that if we have to rely on them playing our records before they would be hits, then we wouldn't be around very long," says Cadman.

Despite the lack of mainstream media support, the label has a number of enviable successes. N-Trance's Set You Free sold 600,000 copies in the UK in the mid-Nineties, while their biggest overall hit was the act's cover of Staying Alive, which was number one in nine countries and was the second biggest-selling single by a UK act internationally in 1995.

These records may not be the most credible of their times, but clearly connect with the public. "We're not ...