Later on this month, father and son owners of well-loved farm – Smithills will be sharing their experiences with other family business owners at our very first insight event this year.

Dad, Anthony and son Carl will share their successes and challenges as family businesses join them behind the scenes on 26th February.

Smithills is a working dairy farm and a popular open farm attraction. Each year around 140,000 people visit the farm from across the region and further afield.

It has been in the Grimshaw family since they took it over in the 1980s. A hard-working and successful family business, their latest venture, a new milk round, generated over five hundred enquiries in just two days.

Introduced by the family run farm to help distribute their milk in the region and reduce the use of plastic, the idea is the latest example of farm diversification.

Carl Grimshaw said: “It’ll be really interesting for us to our share our family story with others. We work hard to innovate and provide for our local community, whether that be investing in the open farm or providing an alternative to supermarket milk.

“Recent ideas like the milk round show how important it is to keep up to date with what people want and keeping things fresh is a big lesson we’ve learned over the years.”

Sue Howorth, the award-winning founder of The Family Business Network is encouraging local family businesses to attend the event.

“The Grimshaw family have created a family business Bolton can be proud of, from humble beginnings they have worked hard and become a true success story.

“Like any family business there have been challenges along the way and this event will provide a valuable opportunity to learn how they overcame their setbacks.

“It will be great to get behind the scenes of a working and diverse farm, and especially to hear from Anthony and Carl who are not only successful business owners but thoroughly lovely people too.”

On the day, attendees will get to hear the story of the family business first hand, do a tour of the farm and then listen or participate in a Q&A session on family business matters.

The event is open to all but particularly of interest to aspiring family businesses in Lancashire and the NorthWest.

Tickets are £15 – for more information, visit www.fambiznet.co.uk/events