Independent business to be the first to deliver desserts by 'ambulance' in Northampton

An independent Northampton business will be the first to deliver their products to customers via ambulance this year.

Brooklyn Brownie Co., which first opened in July 2019, expanded the business by opening their self-built dessert shop from home in July 2022.

What began as delivering chocolatey treats to locals quickly developed to meeting a worldwide demand, and opening their own space to create the products was the only logical next step.

The business was first launched by John Lashley and his son Leo, after Leo’s mother took her own life just days after Brooklyn Brownie Co. was set up.

Baking and working on the business together helped the father and son duo to get through the “extremely tough time” and John says the best part is he gets to work with his son.

Talking about converting the outbuilding at his family home into the dessert shop, John said: “We knew the time was coming where we needed to rent somewhere and with that space in our home going to waste, we decided to get quotes to renovate it.

“Our highest quote was around £55,000 so we decided to take on the project ourselves, and did the entire thing for no more than £9,000. We saved a significant amount as a small business coming out of the pandemic.”

Opening the dessert shop, which is where John and Leo bake the products, has allowed them to introduce 25 new items – including a twice baked ice cream sandwich, which they were the first in the UK to offer.

July 2022 was also when their ‘brownie ambulance’ landed in their possession, and this is where orders are collected from on their driveway.

“We’re now more established and customers feel like they can rock up to us like any other shop,” said John. “There are no dessert or sweet shops like us, and we finally feel we have achieved what we wanted without the risk or debt.”

The ambulance also saw Brooklyn Brownie Co. visit Silverstone at the tail end of the summer for six events, and John says customers admire their “brownies and banter”.

Now Leo is 15, John has seen just how passionate he is about the business – especially as he was committed to the 3.30am wake up calls in the summer to set up at their location by 6am.

It was Leo’s intrigue into American culture that saw the pair introduced to the food truck world and land the ambulance, which they will now also use to deliver orders made online for an additional cost this year.

Talking about their growth since opening up the dessert shop in Ixworth Close, John said: “Every trader who could get food to people during the lockdowns blew up, but we limited our risk of losing success after the pandemic by having multiple strings to our bow.

“We started on delivery services a month before the final lockdown ended to kickstart our upscale, and it went from there.”

As we embark on the new year, Brooklyn Brownie Co. has already been booked for a number of weddings, events at Silverstone, and even to attend the NFL in London.

To find out more about Brooklyn Brownie Co., you can visit the business’ Facebook page here.