Mike Selvaggio grew up in the coffee business, and the dark brew has always played a major role in his life.

"As a child, I had coffee on my Cheerios instead of milk," he jokes.

Mr. Selvaggio, 47, now drinks about nine cups of coffee every day, and every work day he provides coffee for the employees of 2,000 businesses within a 65-mile radius of Pittsburgh.

He does this as general manager of Old Time Coffee. The company founded by his father, Anthony Selvaggio, marked its 30th anniversary on Sunday. The company headquarters has been at 105 Olivia St. in McKees Rocks since 1986.

Old Time Coffee is -- and always has been -- a coffee service company, but over the years it has evolved to supply other services for employees of other companies, including vending machines, bottled water, water filtration systems and equipment repairs.

There are 24 employees and 16 trucks on the road. Old Time Coffee has 10,000 pieces of equipment, including coffee makers and cappuccino machines.

About 70 percent of the business is providing coffee for companies with a minimum of 12 employees.

"We provide the coffee, the equipment, even paper products" such as napkins, said Mr. Selvaggio, who is general manager of Old Time Coffee. Every two weeks, Old Time Coffee services coffee customers, dropping off coffee and other products and cleaning and servicing the equipment.

The cost of the coffee breaks down to 9 cents per cup, he said.

The arrival of Starbucks in the marketplace did not hurt Old Time business, he said, "because we provide Starbucks coffee to customers who want it. It's about 25 cents per cup.

"With about 90 percent of our customers, the coffee is paid for by the employer," he said.

Mr. Selvaggio grew up -- mostly in Hampton -- around coffee. His father worked for other coffee and coffee service companies after graduating in 1963 from Robert Morris University.

Mike Selvaggio was a senior at Hampton High School when his father started Old Time Coffee, which operated out of the family home for the first two years. Except for a brief employment stint at a restaurant, he has always worked in the family business.

Anthony Selvaggio retired in 1992 and now lives in Florida. His wife, Joyce, died in June.

Although Old Time Coffee's 30th anniversary came and went with no special fanfare, it's a milestone that Mike Selvaggio appreciates, because keeping a small family business afloat is no small feat, especially in a market area that has 30 competitors.

In the current recession, business has been down about 6 percent, Mr. Selvaggio said, which isn't bad in this type of economy.

"Companies are not cancelling their coffee service," he said, "though some have been laying off employees" and therefore buying less coffee and other services.

Small companies such as his try to provide good and personalized service "which is my main job," Mr. Selvaggio said. "I'm customer service."

Old Time Coffee looks to create and fill new niches, like bottled water.

Most water cooler water comes in five-gallon bottles that are difficult to handle, especially when it is time to put in a new bottle. Old Time Coffee's water, bottled in Ohio, comes in three-gallon bottles with handles for easier loading -- a lighter load because water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon.

Although customers like the smaller bottles, "bottled water sales are a bit flat for us right now," Mr. Selvaggio said.

But that's not a problem because many customers are instead choosing Old Time's "Point of Use water" which is a system that filters a company's tap water.

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