A business owner has been left devastated after a fire gutted the company’s two industrial units and destroyed its stock yesterday.

Kyri Perifimou, 47, who runs Soprano, a men’s fashion accessory supplier, said the fire could not have happened at a worse time.

Around 100 firefighters tackled the blaze at the industrial complex near the Chingford border early yesterday morning.

The fire, in Advent Way, Upper Edmonton, broke out at around 3am and was under control by 8am, but by then Mr Perifimou’s property had already been destroyed.

“It’s a total loss,” he said.

“It’s just a shell here now. We’ve lost our building and our stock. To get up in the middle of the night for this is just terrible.

“This happened at the worst time of year for us. We were really busy, we had orders in hand and were doing really well.”

Mr Perifimou, who lives in Oak Wood in Enfield, and has run the business for 22 years, said he believes the fire started in an industrial laundrette behind his two units.

“When the fire brigade arrived they were brilliant but the fire was well under way and had spread into our units,” he said.

“We’re having to tell customers we can’t fulfil orders.

“I’m totally out of action at the moment.”

Mr Perifimou said he is shipping stock from manufacturers as quickly as possible to fulfil orders.

Two furniture businesses were also affected and face similarly uncertain futures due to structural damage.

Engineers are at the scene today testing the buildings’ safety.

There were no injuries.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.