return string in functions

Hi friends

I need to return string value in functions
can anyone help me out to return string values rather than integer.

#!/bin/bash
add_a_user()
{
USER=$1
COMPANY=$2
shift; shift;
echo "Adding user $USER ..."
echo "$USER working in $COMPANY ..."
ret_type=YES
return $ret_type
}
echo "Start of script..."
add_a_user kittu Google
echo "End of script..."

i need your valuable suggesions please.
Thanks
Kittu

Print them and call the function in backticks. Return codes from functions and programs are small integers 0-255.