A Mount Vernon distributor of janitorial supplies and furniture for offices and institutions is planning to double its revenues over the next three to four years through an expansion that would transform the 72-year-old company into a supplier of coffee, bottled water and other refreshments.

Mormax Co. has added a five-person sales force in recent weeks and is looking to hire five additional people this year for its new refreshment division, which will sell snacks as well as coffee and water, both the company's own sold under the Luv-A-Cup brand and name-brand beverages. The division will also sell 700 accessory products ranging from coffee filters to sweeteners.

Mormax hopes the new division will grow enough to account for 80 percent of company revenues by 2008, said Seth Nuland, the company's vice president.

"Three to four years out, we're looking at over $10 million," Nuland said. Revenues for privately held Mormax topped $5 million last year.

"We see Westchester as having a ton of opportunities for us. We found a lot of potential from businesses who don't already have those services today, and if they do, we could give them a savings," Nuland said. "We found they want some alternatives" some choices. They want quality but not the most expensive products."

Nuland said the extension of his business into refreshments would allow the company to broaden its customer base to draw more businesses. Most of the company's current customers are nonprofit institutions - including Westhab Inc., the Elmsford-based provider of

housing and social services; the American Red Cross in New York City; and The Salvation Army; and Odyssey House.

From them as well as newer business customers, he said, Mormax hopes to generate more repeat business through its move to refreshments.

Since its launch three weeks ago, the refreshment division has found customers among car dealers throughout the tri-state area - from Land Rover Larchmont/New Rochelle to Lynne's Nissan City Inc. in Bloomfield, N.J. Nuland said other categories of businesses will be targeted soon.

"They were proactive, enough to knock on my door," said Jeff Thomas, manager of Land Rover Larchmont/New Rochelle. "We were in the market for what they had."

The division's sales force is headed by Steve Sribnik, who founded the employment Web site WestchesterJobCentral.com and came to Mormax through someone Nuland knew at the business networking group Business Network International.

Nuland said Mormax expanded into the business of offering beverages and snacks after hearing from customers, and concluding from market research, the company could satisfy demand for purchasing refreshments from the same vendor where they purchase office and other supplies.

Extending product lines to offer a onestop option for business owners and landlords is a business direction increasingly being adopted by other distributors of janitorial supplies nationwide, said Denise Anderson, editor of Services Magazine, a publication of the Building Service Contractors Association International, a 2,500-member industry group based in Fairfax, Va.

"While cost plays a factor, customers also want the convenience of not dealing with three different parties. It's a lot easier to have a single source," Andersen said.

Mormax's prices start at $6.50 for a 5-gallon bottle of water and $23 for a case of coffee. The more volume business customers buy the less they'll spend per unit.

For Mormax, its new foray into refreshments is the latest change in direction for a business founded in 1922 in Brooklyn as a clothing store run by the father of the company's president and Nuland's partner, David Sackser.

Mormax later expanded into ownership of beauty salons and sundry shops on cruise ships, until that industry's decline prompted the business to shift in the late 1970s to distributing janitorial, supplies, for which it, found a customer base among nonprofitday care centers, shelters and rehabilitation centers.

The company moved to the Bronx in the 1980s. In 1995, the business outgrew its Bronx space and moved to its current Mount Vernon address, 150 MacQuesten Parkway North, where it occupies some 50,000 square feet of warehouse and office space.

The company reconfigured its warehouse to make room for its new inventory of refreshments, Nuland said.

"To stay in business, you have to change and adapt, or you die," Nuland said.