What a hoot! The Duchess of Cambridge aged seven, helping to build the Middleton family's party millions 

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The multi-million-pound firm set up by Kate Middleton’s mum in a shed was clearly a family affair, if this picture is anything to go by.

With blower at full stretch and her stripey hat at a jaunty angle, seven-year-old Kate seems particularly determined to make a success of the party supplies company.

Taken in 1989, two years after Party Pieces was started, the picture shows Kate was a natural in front of the camera even then.

The success of the company has enabled the Middletons to send their children to public schools, enjoy regular Caribbean holidays and live in a £4.7million house in the Berkshire village of Bucklebury.

It’s a family affair: Carole Middleton in a 1989 publicity shot for her firm Party Pieces, along with her children Kate, Pippa and James

Poser in chief: A young James Middleton, left; and Kate Middleton, now aged 35, pictured right

The black-and-white photograph – posted on the firm’s website to mark its 30th anniversary – illustrates how Kate’s mum Carole got everyone to muck in.

Kate cheekily aims her blower at Mrs Middleton, then 34, along with her siblings Pippa and James, then five and two.

The shed used as a warehouse used by Party Pieces in its early years

Wearing a belted dress, Mrs Middleton, now 61, looks remarkably glamorous for an entrepreneurial mother of three young – and clearly lively – children.

James had a starring role in a brochure a couple of years later, posing bare-chested in a Red Indian headdress.

In an online blog, Mrs Middleton recalls starting the firm in 1987, the year James was born, after she and husband Michael returned to Britain from Jordan, where they had worked for British Airways.

She wrote: ‘We decided it was time to return for Catherine’s schooling.

‘There was very little partyware available on the high street, and finding the simplest of things was a real challenge. 

'I produced a flyer which I circulated in playgroups and very soon I was using our garden shed as a packing room and office.’

Standing left to right: Michael Middleton, Pippa Middleton, James Middleton, and Carole Middleton at Princess Charlotte’s christening in 2015

The £4.7million family home bought by the Middletons after the business took off, in the Berkshire village of Bucklebury

It grew quickly and in 1989 she began trading from a warehouse in Hungerford, Berkshire. 

Within three years, it was so successful she took over dilapidated barns and sheds at Child’s Court Farm in Yattendon, Berkshire, where the firm remains, employing 40 people and sending out 4,000 orders a week.

Although the Middletons are multi-millionaires, the extent of their wealth is not known because as a private firm, Party Pieces does not have to publish accounts.

Mrs Middleton insists the firm is still ‘very much a family business’, adding: ‘Over the years all my children have played a huge part in it. I still value their opinions.’