He was a huge influence . . . very enthusiastic and loves coffee. It was a couple of years later when he believed enough in the business to invest £100,000, and was a huge influence in helping the banks gain confidence in us. He was still a shareholder up until last year when I bought him out.

At board meetings, he would not allow excuses about slow financial reports. He would never hold back. He taught me how essential they were. I always saw my job as MD to go out and talk up our business. He forced his view down into our strategy . . .

that we insist on a serious look at our P&L every month. It's been the biggest single thing that's allowed us to survive.

He always insisted we dig into our sales figures to find out exactly where the sales growth was and kept us focused on cash flow. If the cash flow wasn't right, he knew the banks would come in straightaway. I learned from him if you don't have that discipline you won't have a brand to build for very long.