The fast-growing fashion brand started by childhood sweethearts in a small town near Bristol

Two childhood sweethearts are flying high as adults as sales soar at their hip Chipping Sodbury online clothing brand Goose & Gander.

Olly White and Maz Hewish, who met at primary school, started the brand as teenagers straight after leaving school nine years ago when they got together as a couple.

Goose & Gander, which makes baggy T-shirts, sweatshirts, fleeces and hoodies, is a big favourite with university students across the UK.

Its orders have shot up from 27,000 to 150,000 in the last four years as 18-24s look for comfortable unisex clothing.Goose & Gander is one of the fastest growing online retailers in the UK with sales growth of 119%.

It was 13th in the Lightning 50 - a list of the UK’s 25 leading ecommerce brands companies compiled by Bristol-based Brightpearl, a leading retail operating system.

The firm was also crowned the fastest growing brand in the South-West of England.

Olly, 28, is responsible for business strategy, running the website and production at their HQ in Chipping Sodbury near Bristol, while Maz, 28, specialises in everything creative including photoshoots and social media.

Olly said: “We split up after leaving primary school but remained friends and went to the same secondary school.

“We began dating again after leaving school and when I told Maz that I wanted to start a business she was keen to come on board, too.

“I love working with my girlfriend. We are both obsessed with running the business and having a business partner who puts in an equal amount of effort and time is important.”

Maz said: “It’s been interesting knowing Olly from a young age through school to now running a business with him. Just as the business has evolved throughout the years, we’ve both evolved too.”

Olly and Maz grew up in the same street in North Nibley, Gloucestershire, and both attended their local Rosehill Primary School which has since closed.

The couple both shared a passion for business and set up Goose & Gander shortly after leaving secondary school, having turned down places at university.

They started by selling T-shirts embroidered with their designs out of a small shop in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.

Then in 2016, after being featured on ASOS Marketplace, their Lino T-shirt began generating a lot of attention.

Sales started ‘flying in’ and they shut the shop and moved to their current 5,300 sq ft workplace in Chipping Sodbury where they have industrial embroidery machines, printing equipment, sewing machines, stock and packaging stations.

Since then, they have acquired a total of 10,000 sq ft of industrial and office space to help their growth.

Although working with influencers is a traditional way for brands to grow their following, the majority of growth has been driven by word-of-mouth from friendship groups who wear Goose & Gander.

The key to managing the explosion in sales was bringing in Bristol-based back office software specialists Brightpearl, who transformed their online operation.

Olly explained: “Before then, we were still having to enter all our orders manually. It was taking hours to input customers’ addresses.

“We had no stock system in place – and it was chaos. Customer service was poor and we had no visibility – it was a nightmare. We kept running out of stock because all our systems were not automated.

“Once the whole online system was integrated by Brightpearl we never looked back.”

Brightpearl easily integrates with everything from ecommerce providers like Shopify to shipping providers. This gives businesses complete visibility and control over everything that happens after a customer hits ‘buy’. The platform is also completely scalable, so it can grow and adapt as businesses do.

The brand’s unisex collections are sold exclusively on Gooseandganderltd.com. It has been approached by many retailers and etailers such as ASOS that want to stock the brand, but the founders want to keep it ‘exclusive’.

Olly and Maz, who live together in Nailsworth, are joint owners of the business and are now looking to take on the fashion giants.