A PLUMBING company which has been run by three generations of the same family is marking its 60th anniversary this year.

R Dakin & Sons was founded in 1957 by Ronald Dakin, grandfather of its current boss, Richard Dakin.

The 45-year-old took over the family business when his father Alan Dakin retired, after running the firm with his two brothers John and Peter, and has been in charge for six years.

The Heaton firm currently employs four people – two plumbers and two gas engineers.

Despite now owning and running the family business, Mr Dakin said initially when he was younger he wasn’t interested in following in his father and and grandfather’s footsteps.

He said: “I didn’t want to join at the beginning. I just followed my dad and once I started it just rolled on from there.”

He has two sons, aged six and 13, but said it was too early to tell if either of them would want to join him at the business in the future.

“They don’t really know what they want to do at that age, but the younger one has shown a little bit of interest.

“From coming round with me he has learnt the names of all the boilers and points them out when he sees them, so you never know.”

He said that reaching the company’s 60th anniversary was a “testament” to the work done and relationships built by his family and their workers over the six decades. “We have always had good staff, and our employees have always had a good relationship with customers, and they all seem to come back to us.

“We do a lot of domestic work but we also work with a lot of schools, and have been meeting with more, and also work with housing associations and estate agents. We are pretty full up for the couple of months coming up and we are are always busy.”

Mr Dakin said his 70-year-old father, despite having been retired for a number of years, was often down at the company headquarters.

“He still comes down most days and potters around, helping out and giving advice to the younger staff.”

Looking ahead, Mr Dakin is keen to grow the business online and make more use of social media. He believes his grandfather would be proud to see how far his business has come.

“He would be well chuffed if he could see it now,it was just him on his own at the start.”