A flourishing baby business involving three generations of the same family is preparing to celebrate a landmark birthday.

Weymouth-based Baby Birds, which notched up annual sales in excess of £2 million last year, turns 30 next Wednesday, February 1.

It plans to mark the anniversary by reducing the price of selected products, both instore and online, by 30 per cent.

Thirty goody bags will also be presented to the first 30 customers through the doors at its store at D2 Link Park, Chickerell Link Road, on Saturday February 4.

Proceeds from an instore raffle, with £1,000 worth of products to be won, will go to the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) at Dorset County Hospital.

Molly Francis Coleman, pictured left, CEO and the daughter of company Founder Emma Charlesworth, said: “I feel very proud that we’ve managed to achieve so much in the last 30 years.

“We have an amazing highly trained team and expectant parents that come in here really do get the service that we originally intended to provide.”

Thirty years ago Emma, now 55, struggled to find a store that could offer her advice and a range of products for her then new baby, Molly.

Coming from a retailing family, she had been brought up working in her parent’s fashion stores.

At the time Emma’s mother, Roma, now 81, had established Lady Birds, an independent ladies’ fashion boutique.

It was decided to expand the store by opening a nursery goods department, originally in a small store in the centre of Dorchester.

Aptly named Lady Birds and Baby Birds, the businesses later split to occupy two premises.

Baby Birds has since expanded through eight different premises in Dorset before relocating to its current location in Weymouth in 2019.

Emma, pictured right with husband Mark, known by his nickname ‘Charlie’ and who works in the warehouse, went on to have a second daughter, Liberty.

She said: “My girls were my inspiration to open a baby store and since then we’ve never looked back.”

Baby Birds employs ten people including Kelly Godden, Warehouse Manager, who has been with the company from the start.

The business also has a second unit on Link Park occupied by a new ‘sister’ venture, Baby Birds Wellness, as well as a warehouse in Southampton.

Around 5,000 products – from pram toys to baby furniture – are listed on its website but the number of items stocked are about double that number.

Orders are despatched across the world including Australia and America.

Although about 90 per cent of business is online, customers travel from up to 100 miles away to visit its showroom.

Molly said: “Expectant parents come in and want to get all the information – and they do.

“We’re open Monday to Saturday and we do appointments or walk-ins.

“So many people come in and say to us: ‘I’m so pleased we found you’.

“We offer a level of personal service you just don’t get with the likes of Amazon.

“People expecting a baby don’t just want to go online and buy everything needed.

“They want to come in, see it and feel it.

“We’ve probably got 50 strollers in here to try out.

“It gives people the choice as well as someone to show them the features, how it folds, try it in their car and then fit the car seat for them so they feel comfortable and confident with how to use it.”

Molly,  pictured with Roma, Emma and her son Dexter, also has a daughter, Valerie, three, and turns 30 herself this year.

A qualified barrister, she was called to the Bar in London but came back home, initially for six months, to help with Baby Birds and also establish sister company, Roma, but never returned.

Roma sells its own range of manufactured products including strollers, buggies and doll’s prams.

It also has an annual turnover of around £2 million and, says Molly, fills a real gap in the market.

She said: “A lot of the brands we were selling had gone down the more premium route.

“We saw, as a retailer, that there needs to be an affordable element.

“Something mid-range and that had all the features of the more expensive ones but didn’t have quite the same price tag.

“It was something we always wanted to do.

“Mum and I flew to China to design our own with, first off, our own little stroller, little buggy and and then we thought, let’s try doing a full pram.

“We’ve always been interested in doll’s prams and, as a business, we’d got a bit of a name for selling them, so we decided to make our own.

“It went ridiculously well so we thought we’d do another.

“We were also approached by a Spanish company that does handmade reborn dolls. We now act as their distributor.

“We sell Roma direct to retailers so people buy 12 or 20 at a time of certain products.”

The latest venture, Baby Birds Wellness, was launched last September with its website going live over Christmas.

Molly said: “Our Baby Birds Wellness centre offers all sorts of holistic treatments and baby classes.

“They include pregnancy massages for new mums, facials, nails, pedicures as well as baby massage classes, baby yoga and workshops for weaning, teething and sleep.

“We have an affiliation with a local midwife and also a doula, offering lots of choices for births.

“It’s a little community hub and links really with Baby Birds.

“In the future, we see Baby Birds Wellness developing with, perhaps, all our businesses coming together under one roof in larger premises and a bigger showroom.

“We will also continue our company forest in partnership with Ecologi. So far nearly 3,000 trees have been planted as we try to be as sustainable as possible.

“This is a lovely business to work in.

“It’s always happy conversations.

“It’s one of the few moments in life when you do get excited.

“A couple expecting a baby come in and are so excited to buy their pram or the first bits for baby.

“It’s a lovely experience and a real feel-good business.

“It feels a privilege to share that excitement and happiness with them.”

• babybirds.co.uk