Family business MannVend are this year celebrating 50 years of business.
The journey began in 1965 when Patrick Leahy and his wife Ailsa Leahy visited the Isle of Man from Africa where he was a tea broker and his son Brian was running a tea estate. Little did he know that the island would not only become his home but his family would venture into their next business phase.
In 1967, After giving a talk on tea to the Rotary Club, Patrick Leahy was asked by a local Hotel to test their tea as they suspected it wasn’t of a good quality. As an expert tea taster and highly respected within the industry, he immediately recognised that their tea was stale.
Subsequently, Patrick saw the potential for bringing quality teas and coffees to the island. He invited his son Brian who was now working on a coffee plantation in Papua New Guinea to help him start, and so the Manx business was born.
The business began trading as Mannin Tea and Coffee and changed to MannVend in 1994.
It is now run by Tracey Leahy, the third generation of the Leahy family.
Tracey Leahy, managing director, said: “I am honoured to ‘captain the ship’ that my grandfather started initially and my father established.
We are extremely excited to be celebrating 50 years and look forward to the future.”
