WHEN Reiss Edgerton quit university after two years, he found himself back at home with no prospects and direction.
But after launching the multimillion company AYBL Group with his younger brother Kris in 2018, they are now worth a staggering £40million.
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With hard work, they are now able to enjoy a life of luxury with expensive holidays to glamorous hotspots like Corfu, Barcelona, and Dubai.
Reiss, 30, also has a stunning influencer girlfriend, a fellow entrepreneur who owns an online clothing store.
Before their success, however, Reiss was embroiled in a scandal that looked set to derail his path while Kris, 28, worked in a chip shop that paid £150-a-week.
Here, we take a look at how the brothers were able to overcome adversity to be named on The Sunday Times Young Rich List.
£150-a-week chippy job
The brothers grew up with Reiss’ friends, Ben Francis and Lewis Morgan, who went on to become the co-founders of the billion pound company Gymshark.
In their teenage years, Reiss and his two friends, from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, used to stay up all night to come up with business strategies and ideas.
While in college the trio set up an internet advertising company which made them an impressive £10,000 each.
But while Reiss went off to Nottingham Trent University to study business, his mates set up Gymshark.
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Coming to the realisation that university wasn’t for him, he quit after two years – only to go back home to Bromsgrove without a plan B, moving in with his grandmother.
Reiss even considered joining the army and said he was just a day away from enlisting and had sworn his oath of allegiance.
Meanwhile, his brother Kris was working in a chip shop and getting paid £150 a week.
However, the entrepreneurial pair turned their fortunes around by going into business with friends selling watches imported from China, a venture that brought in annual sales of £7million.
Reiss told the Sunday Times: “It did well, but watches are one-off purchases. I wanted something that was more of a brand, where we had more of a relationship with our customers.”
Life of luxury
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After the remarkable success of their firm, the brothers are now living a luxurious life, which they often share on social media.
Reiss has posted pictures of himself at a number of lavish holiday destinations including Corfu, Dubai, and Barcelona.
He is also dating Alice Cross, who alongside the brothers co-founded her online clothing store, Because Of Alice.
Alice, 27, who has over 552,000 followers on Instagram, often posts glamorous pictures flaunting her impressive designer bags and accessories, including a Cartier watch and Jimmy Choo shoes.
Jet2 scandal
Before Reiss hit the big time in 2015, he made headlines when he was kicked off a Jet2 flight with his friend, Joseph Kings, for exhibiting “aggressive and abusive” behaviour.
The pair were a part of a group traveling to Ibiza and were reportedly seen being rude to airport security, shoving fellow passengers, and threatening Jet2 employees.
At the time, Phil Ward, who was the managing director of the airline said: “We are a leisure airline and we simply won’t stand for such rude and disrespectful behaviour.
“Many passengers on the flight were families travelling with young children, so there was no way we were going to expose them to this aggressive and abusive pair.”
After being hit with a six month ban from travelling with the airline, the two friends threatened legal action with Joseph claiming the incident occurred as a result of a “vendetta” a flight attendant had against him. No further action was taken by police.
Success with AYBL
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After years of good and bad times, the brothers launched AYBL from a spare room of their Bromsgrove home in 2018.
The firm, based in Redditch, manufactures women’s clothing such as crop tops, sports bras, and other gym attire in their trademark neutral colours.
In 2020 alone, the brand made profits of £4million on £22million sales of their clothes.
Last year, Reiss’ old friend Lewis, who left Gymshark to go into property development investment, bought a 20 per cent stake in their business, bringing its value to £50million.
It also boosted Reiss and Kris’s own shares to a whopping £40million.
Earlier this year, the brand was named the fastest growing private company in Britain with annual sales growth over three years pegged at 359.01 per cent.
Celebrating the win on Instagram, Reiss wrote: “Less than 3 years ago, me and my brother were running the brand out of a spare room in the house and today we employ over 50 people.”
For the first time ever, in 2021, the brothers joined their old friends Ben and Lewis on the Sunday Times Rich List after being ranked number 24.
In a post on social media, Reiss alluded to the success of his pals and wrote: “We’ve all indirectly contributed to each other’s success.
“There’s a lesson to be had here, good friends bring each other up. Too many selfish and greedy people in this world, there’s nothing better than sharing success with friends.”
