Nick Beard, of Leigh Sinton Christmas Trees, is gearing up for another hectic festive period as the company celebrates its 70th anniversary year.

The company was started at Leigh Sinton farm, where Nick’s grandfather set up in 1948. He passed it on to Nick’s father, who passed it on to him.

For Nick, it was always the plan to go into the family business

“After school I just fit in to working on the farm so it was a natural progression to be here," he told the Worcester News.

“I was in the fortunate position to be able to get into farming and I am also very lucky to have dad still very much involved in the business.

“Over the years we have been able to go from wholesaling trees to going back to retailing and it is nice to be able to sell to individuals and meet people.

“We get a lot of people coming to us whose parents and grandparents bought their trees from us in the past, which is great.”

Growing then and selling 6,000 trees takes an enormous amount of effort and a great deal of preparation from Nick and his team, which also includes his wife and sister.

Planting usually begins in the spring, depending on the weather, and it takes several months for the trees to be ready for Christmas.

Nick said: “We usually plant in the spring and hope there will be a lot of moisture as the trees don’t like a hot, dry summer like we have had this year.

“We didn’t plant this year but will be planting again in the spring next year.”

Nick added: “We have been through various cycles on the farm, including hops and soft fruit, so the key thing is to keep adapting and changing to suit needs, and making sure you’re up to speed.”

For the last eight years, Leigh Sinton has gifted a Christmas tree to Malvern Town Council. This year’s offering was a 36ft tree which was installed on Monday, November 19 ready for November 24’s Christmas lights switch on.