Meet Peterborough's next Alan Sugar as schoolboy Luke has already made £1,000 running sweets business

Dubbed Peterborough’s next Alan Sugar – a city schoolboy has already made £1,000 after creating his own business when he struggled to find pick and mix he could eat.

Luke Scotney, 11, has a severe nut allergy and launched his bespoke brand late last year.

Now, he says he is already making £500 a month.

Mum Michelle Scotney, 40, helps him sort the orders at their home in Peterborough.

‘On track to make more’

Luke said: "I have a severe nut allergy, and it's been impossible to find pick n mix sweets that are safe to eat.

"I pitched the idea to mum and we looked and couldn't find anyone doing something similar - so we launched the idea ourselves.

"We're currently on our third restock of sweets having sold out twice before.

"We've made about £1,000 - but we are on track to make more."

Michelle said Luke has always had business acumen and has pitched countless ideas to her over the years.

Most were creative but unrealistic until, in October last year, he came up with Sweets4mysweets.com.

Luke originally wanted to make pick and mix that doesn't contain traces of nuts.

But the brand has now morphed into sweets free from other allergens as well.

Michelle says she is committed to investing both her time and money to make it work after hearing her son's idea.

‘Luke’s ideas always been great’

Michelle, who runs another business alongside, said: "Luke's ideas up to this point had always been great - just a bit out there.

"But the nut free pick and mix business was genius and, more importantly, very feasible.

"He's allergic to peanuts and tree nuts so he knows what its like not to be able to have pick and mix.

"So I lent him the money and together we launched Sweets4mysweets.com.

"The expense of using a website builder was huge, so we did some research and built our own.

"It took about a month of trial and error - but when we found the format we wanted, we got it up and running in a day."

Michelle and Luke found two sweet wholesalers to order from and ordered 50 different types of sweets in 3kg packets each.

The sweets come packaged separately to avoid any allergy contamination and all are completely free from traces of nuts.

They keep their produce in a spare room at home and recently received top marks from Peterborough City Council after an inspection on health and safety.

They are 50/50 partners, and the majority of the profit is currently being pumped back into the business and repaying Michelle for the start-up loan.

Luke plans to buy warehouse space in the future so he's able to order more stock, employ staff and eventually open his own store.

He said: "Mum's in charge of the finances and I'm the creative one - although I'm learning all the time.

"75% of all profit goes back into the business, 12.5% goes in my savings and 12.5% goes to repaying my mum and dad for the loan.

"Obviously the money is great, but its just as much about providing people with sweets which they can trust and enjoy.”