Established: 1964

Location: 1035 W. Fireweed Lane, Anchorage

Telephone: 907-278-2736

Major focus of services: Anchorage Messenger Service provides courier services either as part of its route deliveries within two to three hours or for rush orders delivered in 30 minutes to an hour. The firm also offers overnight delivery statewide or to Washington and Oregon as well as same day delivery to the Matanuska-Susitna area.

History of the company: In the 1960s several lawyers urged Betty Hicklin, a court clerk, to start a courier service for filing legal paperwork. Anchorage Messenger Service originally operated from the courthouse, and Hicklin ran it as a side business. She built up the company, eventually serving about 200 clients, until she sold it to Mattson Investigations LLC in 1995.

Other couriers had entered the market since Anchorage Messenger Service started, so the company had about 90 clients and four couriers by the mid-1990s.

In 1999 Anchorage Messenger Service grew to 380 clients. Additional competition, including some firms run by former Anchorage Messenger employees, has affected the company, which now totals 320 clients.

After working for Mattson Investigations for several years Victor Ratz acquired Anchorage Messenger Service in mid-2001. The courier service employs 12 drivers, and Ratz hopes to add two or three others this year to serve an expanding route system.

"What makes our type of courier messenger service different is that we specialize in court work," said managing director Ratz.

Other clients include accounting, engineering and construction companies, physicians and state and city government.

Routes are dictated by a computer-aided mapping program from Microsoft.

Top accomplishment of the company: Ratz is pleased with the company's customer service, which he describes as consistent, accurate and affordable. Customer retention is difficult, since Anchorage Messenger Service sells a service rather than a product, he said.

Major player: Victor Ratz, managing director, Anchorage Messenger Service.

While living in London Ratz ran a retail music store. He next worked for Trace Elliot, a sound equipment manufacturer, where he was European sales manager and artist relations manager for five years. In Hawaii he studied at Chaminade University of Honolulu. He moved to Alaska to live near his extended family and began working for Mattson Investigations in 1995.

-- Nancy Pounds