Harborough based Joules enjoys a successful stock market flotation

Joules chief executive officer Colin Porter, who took charge last year, said the share listing marked “an exciting new phase in Joules’ development”.

Founder and chief brand officer Tom Joule said: “We’re now ideally placed to continue the brand’s expansion by opening more stores in the UK and Ireland, growing the international business and increasing the product range for our loyal customers.”

The company, which employs more than 250 people at its town HQ, and a similar number at its distribution centre in Corby, increased income by 50 per cent to £116.4m between the 2013 and 2015 financial years.

The increase was driven by opening more stores, increased sales within its wholesale accounts and expansion of its online business.

In the same period, international revenues grew by almost 200 per cent, to £10.6m.

The “premium British lifestyle brand” raised more than £77m with the launch, which it can now reinvest.

Investment group LDC, a branch of Lloyds, pumped £22m into the company in 2013. They have sold their share of the business for £53m, a 240 per cent profit in two-and-a-half years.

Martin Draper, chief executive of LDC, said: “Tom, Colin and the entire team at Joules have achieved incredible success in recent years, thanks to their drive, focus and vision.

“They’ve created a powerful brand with distinctive design, premium positioning and loyal customers.”

Joules markets itself as a ‘contemporary British lifestyle brand - born in the British countryside and crafted with true British style and eccentricity’.

The Joules collections now include womenswear, menswear, childrenswear, homeware, toiletries and eyewear sold in their own stores and through national retailers, online and through catalogues.

In an interview with The Mail last year, Tom Joule said: ““I’d like to be a global brand. I don’t think we’ve reached my expectations yet.”