WHY THE HOLLIES?
A family run business since 1959, The Hollies began as a vegetable stand on the side of the road selling homegrown produce with an honesty box. Over 60 years later, the business is still run by the Cowap family, (now in its second, third, and fourth generation!), and The Hollies Farm Shop has grown to become a retail destination and one of the best farm shops in the northwest of England, UK. The award-winning Little Budworth site now incorporates a butchery, a delicatessen, a fresh fish counter, The Barn home, gift & lifestyle department, The Hollies Takeaway, and luxury forest lodges. A further retail site at Lower Stretton, near to Warrington, Cheshire offers a farm shop, butchery, gift area and Café Hollies.
It is at their original Little Budworth site that the entrepreneurial family had their first venture into hospitality when they launched their caravan park site in the 1980’s, diversifying further to include quiz nights, suppers, and dances in the barn to entertain holiday makers. For many years, the family talked about expanding their enterprise into self-catering accommodation, and in 2009 they put this idea into practice with log cabin style accommodation at their site at Little Budworth.
Fast forward to today, and The Hollies Retreats now incorporates the 6 luxury forest lodges in Little Budworth, Cheshire; Stay on the High Street with the option of 5 cosy rooms on Tarporley High Street, Cheshire; Muckrach Country House, a luxury private hire house for up to 22 guests in the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland; an additional 3 self-catering units on the Muckrach Country House Estate in the Highlands of Scotland; Cathedral House, Dornoch a cosy interior design led cookie-box cottage; and 2 luxury villas in Barbados.
As the business has grown and developed over the years, what hasn’t changed is the family’s passion for great quality and customer service, the importance of their heritage in farming, and their family values – these all remain today after over 60 years in business.