Business empire growing for village entrepreneur Luke

Life has not stood still for a village entrepreneur who has taken the global pandemic as a spur to seek new opportunities.
By Andy Hubbert
Published 8th Dec 2020, 11:51 BST
Urban Gelato and Urban Kitchen, Navenby. L-R Emma Smith, Julie Hardman, Laura, Jay Daniels. EMN-201127-175654001Urban Gelato and Urban Kitchen, Navenby. L-R Emma Smith, Julie Hardman, Laura, Jay Daniels. EMN-201127-175654001
Urban Gelato and Urban Kitchen, Navenby. L-R Emma Smith, Julie Hardman, Laura, Jay Daniels. EMN-201127-175654001

At the beginning of this year, Luke Daniels owned and ran Luke’s Barbershop and Urban Angels hair salon in Navenby, as well as a second barbers in Bracebridge Heath.

During the first lockdown he converted his salon to open as Urban Gelato, selling ice creams, proving hugely popular.

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Luke said: “It has been bonkers, and all from sitting at home not wanting to be bored.

Urban Gelato and Urban Kitchen, Navenby. EMN-201127-175643001Urban Gelato and Urban Kitchen, Navenby. EMN-201127-175643001
Urban Gelato and Urban Kitchen, Navenby. EMN-201127-175643001

“When I knew lockdown would be lifted I started looking where I could move the hair salon or the gelato shop. I heard the village tearoom was selling up so Urban Gelato went there temporarily, serving out the front door.”

Closing the shop in October he spent the time converting the kitchen into the ice cream serving area with hatch. The kitchen has been moved upstairs, while downstairs has become Urban Kitchen, a cool sandwich bar and coffee shop.

With shifting Covid restrictions, Luke admitted: “We were on our third business model before we even opened, having to quickly diversify and change for warm and cold weather, eat in, delivery or takeaway.

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“It has been stressful, with patches of calm and anger, but the lockdown has allowed us to do a ‘soft’ launch and I have never been afraid to ask for advice.”

The barber shops and salon are now reopening for appointments too.

Luke also acquired the old doctor’s surgery in the village on North Lane making use of it as his office base and has converted some of the space into a ‘Huddle Room’ small conferencing facility, rentable by the hour for local business people to communicate with others via a large, 120-degree camera and screen, instead of crowding around a laptop or risking embarrassing interruptions working from home.

It has been used by firms including solicitors and a drone seller.

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Luke’s brother, Jason has also come on board and they have started up Urban Blinds and Luke said the demand has been “phenomenal”.

As chairman of the Navenby Business Network he and fellow members Mindy Arora and Tracey Conway have now overseen installation of a 22ft illuminated Christmas tree in the grounds of the Methodist Church and 40 smaller trees along the street.