Radford kids who work for them and awkward fight to control the family business
The Radfords have always managed to look after themselves financially with their bakery business - and it's certainly a family affair.
Parents Sue and Noel, who have a whopping 22 children, make money by baking pies and do not claim any benefits apart from Child Benefit.
"Absolutely not, we're definitely not secret millionaires," Sue said on their YouTube channel when asked if the family were rich.
"To me rich would be having the big mansion, the flash cars and quite a few hundred thousand in the bank, to me that would be rich but we are not that."
The Radfords' Pie Company, which has been running from 1999, serves a wide selection of pies, from a meaty British Steak and Stilton or tender chicken and gammon to totally vegetarian ones.
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The Radfords have to feed a lot of hungry mouths (LancLive/ WS)Dad Noel is the family breadwinner, having been a baker for 25 years and working in several bakeries from trainee to manager to owner.
He started up The Radford Pie company, which is located near their family home in Morecombe, Lancashire, serving fresh, healthy pies to customers across the UK.
But he's not the only members of the family involved in the business as they've roped in some of the kids.
Noel's job is to ensure the smooth running of the business and future developments, such as creating new pie recipes.
When wife Sue doesn't have her hands full with the kids, she oversees all the orders coming in and going out and acts as "chief taste tester".
Daughter Chloe, who has worked in the bakery shop for five years, is the next generation of artisan pie maker and makes suggestions for delicious new recipes.
Chloe is in charge of the pastry side, which is produced in an industrial sized mixer that can get hold enough for the bottom half of 200 pies.
Noel had to close the business when he tested positive for coronavirus (Radford family)That's not all, as son Daniel takes orders, prepares the pies for delivery and makes sure everywhere is spotless after a day of pie-making.
They have some heavy duty equipment and a large scale cooking machine so their ovens can cook around 300 pies an hour.
On their website, they state: "We have owned our own lovely bakery since 1999 which is how we manage to provide for (and feed) our huge and expanding family as well as for the local people of Heysham and Morecambe.
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"We have set up our on-line pie shop so we can share our very popular pies with you all. We're a real family business with both myself and Sue working at the helm along with some of our children to help us."
Earlier this year, Noel told viewers of their show that he had baked his last loaf and was 'retiring' to spend more time with the kids.
"No more getting up early. Hang up my gloves, time to move on," Noel told his wife, before putting kids Chloe and Luke up against each other to see who would take over.
Noel told two children that he wanted just one person running the business in his absence, adding that he thinks it would be "easier that way".
But it caused a clash, as Chloe assumed she would be taking over - leading to some tough words.
One of the pies cooked in the Radfords' bakery (Radford family)Noel replied: "The thing is, that because I'm obviously a dad to the pair of you, I don't want to say 'Chloe it's your job' while never even looking at Luke or giving him a chance.
"I want to feel like it's fairly done and Luke doesn't go away feeling unhappy."
Luke finally spoke on the matter, stating he felt capable of handling the business, saying: "I definitely feel like it's something I'm capable of."
However, Chloe felt she would be the right choice to take over the business, stating: "I mean with no disrespect to Luke, I would say that I am the right choice. I'm going to back myself."
Noel admitted the decision would be very hard to see which child he would hand down the business to.
He said: "It's going to be a tough decision, obviously if one of them is going to get the job, I think it's just going to be a bit of a case of you know selling themselves to me."
In the end, no decision need to be made as Noel struggled helping Sue around the house and decided he found retirement too boring.
The Radfords are Britain's biggest family with 22 kids (SWNS)He decided to beg his kids to give him his job back, telling wife Sue: "I'm not past my best-by date yet, I think I'm going back."
When he asked to be let back into the bakery, Chloe replied: "You're only an employee now."
Like many around the country, they were dealt a devastating blow by the Covid-19 pandemic and were forced to close down the business temporarily.
After testing positive for coronavirus, Noel had to temporarily close the doors to his beloved bakery in December 2020.
"We've had to close, we can’t keep it open because Noel and Chloe are the ones in the bakehouse baking all the pies.
"Obviously Chloe has had to isolate with us all, it was impossible to keep it open so we’ve had to close.
"It's a massive nightmare to be honest. It’s the busiest time of the year and we can’t get any orders out. We've not got any income coming in from the shop so it's going to hit quite hard to be honest."
Noel booked a Covid-19 test after losing his sense of smell and "feeling cold and fluey" but did not have serious symptoms.
However, it meant he had to isolate at home, along with the rest of his massive clan, so everyone went a bit "stir crazy".
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