His dream was to create a lifestyle fashion brand similar to Abercrombie, with ambitions of turning over £1 million.

"I thought if I was able to grow it to £1 million turnover that all my problems would go away," he said. "I thought that I'd have made it."

"The first few years were hard because I was still working as a pharmacist and all of the money that I earned went straight back into marketing or buying new products."

Now, 14 years later, Blakely - Norwich City's main shirt sponsor - is among the fastest-growing companies in the UK, turning over £84.1 million in the year to March 2026.

Gareth Newman, Blakely founder and CEO (Image: Blakely)

Blakely's success in recent years is partly down to elevated sales in Europe, with the EU now accounting for almost 40pc of its global turnover.

Mr Newman said the majority of its business - around 55pc of its turnover - remains in the UK, with the other 5pc coming from Australia and the US, where Blakely plans to open sites in Sydney and Illinois later this year.

"If we can crack the US it would be unbelievable," said the 39-year-old. "But our focus still is very much on the UK and our existing markets.

"Our US and Australian customers buy from us even though they have really high shipping prices, so we're going to open up a couple of satellite HQs that can fulfil orders out of each of the countries, bringing down the barrier to entry by making shipping prices much........

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