A MAN once reduced to living homeless in woodland and drinking nettle tea is well on his way to being a business tycoon.

And his success is all down to unshakeable determination and pomegranates.

Swindonian James Brett, 34, is the brain behind Pomegreat, a drink which was only launched about 10 months ago but which can already be found in 250 Sainsbury's and 107 Waitrose stores nationwide, along with smaller stores up and down the country. It is thought to be unavailable from any other European source.

It is about to go on sale in Germany and Pakistan, which is ironic because it was in Pakistan that former Ridgeway School pupil Mr Brett first tasted the pomegranate juice he decided to market.

Mr Brett also reports strong interest from Sweden and America, and on Monday had a high-level meeting at the Institute of Directors in London, discussing the best way forward for Pomegreat.

He said: "I first had the idea in 1999 when I was visiting Pakistan.

"In a back street outside Karachi, an old man was selling fruit juice from a stall he had a blender there.

"I asked him to make me some pomegranate juice, and as soon as I tasted it I knew what I was going to do. My whole body tingled.

"I was standing there, an Englishman in Karachi on the hottest day of the trip, and all I could think of was Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda!"

After forming a company and recruiting a manager, Mr Brett, using his savings, set about relentlessly marketing it.

The drink is produced by specialist contractors in Durham and Wisbech in ever-increasing quantities, and Mr Brett says thousands of litres are drunk every month.

But he has achieved his success by hard work rather than by having any unfair advantages.

At about 16, a series of family tragedies led to him becoming depressed and dabbling with soft drugs. Eventually, he left his home in Wroughton.

For more than a year, beginning when he was 19, he lived rough in woodland, scrounging food and also eating plants. He cooked them using instructions from a book on fieldcraft which he borrowed from the library, and says nettle tea was a favourite.

He then managed to secure council accommodation in Plymouth and later in Swindon.

By his mid-20s he had cleaned up his life to such an extent that he was able to use savings to astutely buy a house in Melksham in time for the South West property boom.

He had also met future wife Tarnia, now 29.

Always with an eye for a business opportunity, he welcomed his chance to go on what turned out to be a fateful fortnight's trip to Pakistan in 1999. He had hoped to find some locally-produced furniture to bring home for sale in a possible business venture.

He cheerfully describes himself as unemployable in the sense that he cannot bear to work for anybody else, as well as being an insatiable traveller. He has visited more than 40 countries and has not a single academic qualification to his name.

Mr Brett and Tarnia live with daughters Fern and Amber, aged nine and five, at a farmhouse in the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland, although Mr Brett often visits Swindon.

As well as expanding the Pomegreat business, he plans to introduce another drink, although details are a secret for the moment.

He has simple advice for any young person finding themselves at as low an ebb as he once was: "Just believe in yourself. Everything happens for a reason."

An ancient cure all . . .

Although no outright medicinal claims can be made for pomegranates or any fruit, Pomegreat is approved by the Family Heart Association as part of a healthy diet.

Many people remember fads for them, in which children would pick the seeds from the flesh of the fruit with pins.

In ancient Greece, the fruit was revered as a cure-all for stomach and digestive and urinary tract problems. Pomegreat has added vitamins A, C and E.

They were among the first cultivated fruit. According to the Pomegreat website (www.pomegreat.com), they originated in Persia and Turkey, with cultivation beginning up to 6,000 years ago.

They are mentioned in the Bible, the Koran and Greek mythology, as well as by Shakespeare.

Major producers include war-torn Afghanistan, whose most notorious export is heroin. If Pomegreat goes global, Mr Brett hopes to see that change.

Barrie Hudson