25 years of growing success for local family business

Boyces at Manstree, a small family-run business based in Shillingford St George, are delighted to be celebrating their 25th Anniversary this month.

Brothers Tim and Simon Boyce, together with their parents Clive and Susan, took over the fruit farm and vineyard in 1994. Over the years, the family has grown the business substantially, and they now employ a small team to help as the Boyces at Manstree reputation has spread throughout Devon and further afield.

The brothers also started the nursery business soon after taking over and Boyces Nursery now supply floral displays to many Town Councils, Britain in Bloom, including for Teignmouth, Shaldon, Dawlish, Sidmouth, Exmouth, Bovey Tracey and Exeter, as well as to many pubs, hotels and private customers.

Boyces Fruit Farm continues to flourish, with the farm shop selling a variety of fresh and frozen fruit picked direct from the farm. The shop also sells a range of jams made from fruit grown on the farm, and bottles of Jupiter Apple Juice pressed from the farm’s Jupiter apple variety.

The Manstree Vineyard - one of the oldest working vineyards in the South West – is a 6-acre vineyard producing top quality grapes; the grapes are sold to local wineries and in turn, these wines are sold in the farm shop.

To mark their 25th Anniversary, the Boyce family are inviting the public to join them for a Celebration Afternoon on Sunday 21st July, with tours of the Vineyard, stalls, cream teas, ice cream and much more. All proceeds from the Celebration Afternoon will be donated to Rainbow Living, a local volunteer-run charity providing accommodation for adults with learning and other disability.

Simon Boyce said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be celebrating our 25th anniversary as a family business! It’s been a lot of hard work but we are so proud of how far we have come and would like to say a big thank you to everyone who supports our business and who has been a part of our journey. “We are unable to mark this key anniversary in May as this is a very busy time of year for us!

We are however very much looking forward to celebrating on the 21st July and hoping to raise lots of money for Rainbow Living. The charity is fundraising for a fourth Rainbow House in the Exeter area, and we are proud to support them as we know it will make a lasting difference for many people long into the future.”