From out-of-work aerospace engineer to Kirky bike shop owner

The engineering consultant recently opened up Marina Cycles at Kirkintilloch, offering the normal sales and repairs as well as participating in the Scottish Cycle repair scheme.

The keen cyclist told the Herald: “When I was furloughed in the summer, I thought that redundancies in my team were likely to be inevitable.

"I decided to be proactive and began looking into setting up a bike shop as a possible idea.

"By the time I returned to work I had a business plan, a start-up loan and some suppliers but I was still working towards premises.

"While this was still in the air, I was put on consultation for redundancy and the inevitable happened.

"Luckily I did finally manage to secure premises two weeks after my last day.”

Luke worked in engineering since graduating in 2004 and as an engineering consultant for Atkins since 2006.

His career took him across the aerospace, oil and gas industry, and more recently on offshore wind, on projects across the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

Luke said: “With the majority of my work still in oil and gas, the oil price crash due to Covid in early 2020 was concerning, and I started looking at the job market particularly in offshore wind.

"However, this also ground to a halt during the early stages of lockdown.

He added: “As a keen cyclist I had toyed with the idea of getting into the bike industry before but all the opportunities I found on the engineering side were not really possible with a young family.

"From that point of view, it's nice to be moving into a job I have a real passion for.

"As well as this, it's been nice to feel like I'm doing something useful for the community I live in, where previously my job was quite divorced from my life at home.”

Marina Cycles is based at Unit 4, McBride Avenue, Southbank Business Park, Kirkintilloch, open from Tuesday to Saturday.

Visit Luke’s website at marinacycles.com