A REDDITCH entrepreneur who counts his customers as Love Island contestants and England football stars is celebrating an unlikely anniversary.

David Powell, along with friend Sean Cotter, runs fashion brand 304 Clothing and suffered a devastating fire 12 months ago which threatened to close the business.

Last summer the duo saw their warehouse in Essex go up in flames, with the fire wiping out their entire collection worth £86,000 at cost – and a market value of £500,000.

They were left with nothing, but thanks to the support of customers such as England footballer Raheem Sterling they were able to re-build from scratch, and are now celebrating.

Mr Powell, 29, a former student at Saint Augustines High School, said: "Finding out that our entire stock holding and warehouse had burnt down was devastating.

“We thought the entire business and brand that we had worked night and day on for five years was going to count for nothing.

“Only one month prior we had our office broken into and all our hardware and extremely sentimental items were taken from us.

“We sat down and reflected on the situation and thought that if we could get through this, then we could get through anything.”

The pair begin re-selling new stock on their website within three weeks.

And this year marks a number of celebrations, including a new headquarters based in nearby Kings Norton.

Mr Powell, who now lives in Dodford, added: “We are over the moon that we are now 12 months on and find ourselves with a brand new HQ.

“Our team has doubled in size, we are on course to nearly treble our yearly turnover to £1.8 million and we are now looking to celebrate the fire anniversary and our sixth birthday rather than mourn it.”