Miles Hartwell and Brett Allen have been overwhelmed by the success of their late-night alcohol delivery service in Brighton.

In just a few months they have gone from an average of six orders a night to upwards of 40.

The old friends began their boozy business because, as self-confessed "socialisers" they noticed a gap in the market when the pubs shut and the night club queues were too long.

With just a phone, a bare minimum of stock and a few advertising stickers, Miles and Brett began the Booze Brothers and sat anxiously waiting for the calls to come in.

At first it didn't all go to plan. Miles, 26, of Devonshire Place, Brighton, said: "We got a load of stickers and stuck them everywhere - in pub toilets, on walls along St James's Street, on lamp-posts. We got our first call at about 8pm.

"But the next morning we had a call from the council who gave us two hours to take them all down. Then we got lots of calls from angry pub landlords. We even had a man from Eastbourne ring us after someone had put a sticker on the bonnet of his car."

At first they did everything themselves from buying stock to making the deliveries and found it hard to resist going into the parties they were supplying with alcohol. Now, they are inundated with orders at the weekend and have employed six delivery drivers.

Brett, 27, of Oriental Place, Hove, said: "We used to go into parties when we first started but now we rarely have a moment when there isn't someone waiting.

"I did a delivery at one house where there were 16 hens and they asked if I would give them something for free. I gave them a couple of cartons of fruit juice and they went mad and tried to pull my trousers off.

"I have never been so scared by a load of women."

Miles, who was a furniture designer before starting the business in March, said: "Sometimes we go to squats and people will come to the door with a Tupperware washing-up bowl full of pennies.

"At other times we deliver to parties where people don't blink an eye about giving us £250.

"The best was when I delivered all the champagne we had to a party in Hanover and when I was invited in, I discovered it was full of models.

"I don't know if it's that I'm getting older or if it's because of Booze Brothers but I'm actually starting to calm down when I go out now."

Miles and Brett, neither of whom had business training, found a legal loophole which allowed them to turn their socialising into money-making.

They spoke to lawyers, law courts, the police, the council and the Inland Revenue to find out whether they could legally sell alcohol after 11pm.

They discovered that, as long as they sold it in multiples, they could get away with it - so customers have to buy a minimum of 24 bottles or cans of beer, a pack of spirits or a case of wine.

They sell them at off-licence prices, without a delivery charge, and have branched out into snacks, bags of ice and cigarettes.

Plans to expand the business are underway and they are even thinking about taking it to Oxford because the reception in Brighton has been so encouraging.

Miles said: "The Booze Brothers has acquired almost celebrity status and when we say what we do, people have always heard of us.

"Its success is a statement about Brighton as much as it is about our hard work."

When the profits do start to roll in, Miles and Brett intend to take a relaxing alcohol-free holiday.