FOLLOWING a successful start to his St John's business Tony Mole hopes to go from strength to strength in 2004.

Solitaires, in Oldbury Road, sells fruit, vegetables and flowers and has been open for three months.

Mr Mole is very pleased with the progress and says he is building up a very good relationship with the local community.

"You get a lot of regular customers coming in here," said Mr Mole. "People come in to buy one or two things a day because they know that we have a fresh delivery every day."

Mr Mole, aged 54, used to run a flower shop in CrownGate shopping centre called Best of the Bunch, for four years, until the end of 2002.

He said he decided to return to the business after a friend bought the empty premises and asked if he wanted to rent the property.

"If we go by what happened in the first couple of months then this should be a very successful business," he said.