Keen angler Darren Bailey left school at 16 in the hope of making money doing something he loved.

Thirty years on from taking a job in a fishing tackle shop in Norwich, he is chief executive of Angling Direct, a rapidly growing retail business that made its stock market debut a year ago.

At a time of great uncertainty on Britain’s high streets, with some of the best known names in retail struggling or going bust, Angling Direct is opening more shops. Its 23rd shop will open its doors to customers in Guildford on 1 September, soon to be followed by a 24th store in Peterborough. The company has identified another 20 other popular fishing locations for future stores.

“It’s a tactile product,” Bailey explains. “People like to see it, touch it, feel it. They might wait until a later date to buy it online but they still want to see the products in the shops.”

Combined online and store sales jumped 56% to £21.9m in the six months to 31 July, despite extreme weather conditions with the Beast from the East and the prolonged heatwave, which might deter even the most dedicated anglers.

The number of shoppers visiting stores did dip over the period, by about 2%, but like-for-like sales – stripping out sales at shops open for less than a year – rose 4.2% as the average customer spend increased.

Angling Direct sells a vast assortment of more than 21,500 fishing tackle products, ranging from a £1 bag of hooks to poles that will set you back nearly £4,000.

The company does not sell through Amazon and, as yet, has not suffered at the hands of the online retailer. Bailey says that while it is always wise to keep an eye on what Amazon is doing – it does sell some fishing tackle – he’s not too concerned: “Customers want specialist service and advice, and you can’t get that from Amazon.”

For a business that began with fishing tackle shops in Norfolk, Bailey now has ambitions beyond UK shores. Angling Direct already exports to more than 40 countries and launched a German website in June, with other European websites to follow later in the year.

The company floated on the Alternative Investment Market in July last year, to fund the expansion that Bailey is now seeing through. Shares have risen from 64p to 107p over the period.

The rapid growth in sales is thanks to that expansion and investment, both in stores and online, rather than an explosion of people taking up fishing as a hobby.

“Fishing [as a pursuit] is pretty stable. We’re winning on market share, though we are working very hard on bringing new anglers into the sport,” he says.

As for his own hobby, Bailey doesn’t get out fishing as much as he would like to these days. He went fishing for the first time in 2018 last week, on the River Trent.

The ideal weather for a spot of fishing and a further boost to sales? “I’m hoping for an Indian summer and a normal British winter,” Bailey says.