Mum-of-22 Sue Radford shows whopping pie orders they send out which helps fund their lavish life after Disney cruise
SUE and Noel Radford manage to live a luxury lifestyle despite having 22 kids – and it’s partly down to their pie shop business.
From taking 24 holidays in two years to their 10-bedroom mansion with its £27k pool, some have questioned how they afford their millionaire lifestyle.
The Radfords don’t rely on benefits and support themselves with the proceeds of Noel’s bakery, The Radford Pie company.
The business is a family affair, with Noel at the helm, and children Chloe and Daniel having helped out in the past.
This week the family gave fans an update on this week’s deliveries saying their peppered steak pie was proving “very popular”.
The Radford parents then showed off pallets of their pie piled high ready to be delivered to customers.
They wrote: “All done. Now to go pick the kids up.”
This follows the family returning home from a luxury Disney cruise in Florida ahead of term starting.
In a previous episode of their TV show, Noel revealed that he’s made over £2.5 million since they started the business in 1999.
But, without accurate and up to date figures, it would be difficult to estimate the company’s gross profit.
On their website, it says: “We have owned our own lovely bakery since 1999 which is how we manage to provide for (and feed) our huge and expanding family as well as for the local people of Heysham and Morecambe.”
The family have now expanded their business to cater for online orders made from around the UK, and were recently forced to splash out on a huge new bakery as the pie business grew.
I tried one of Noel Radford’s pies and it was gross
Fabulous Senior Writer, Abigail Wilson, shares her impressions of Radford's famous pies.
After Noel revealed on his family’s famous show, 22 Kids & Counting, that he’d made a staggering £2.5million from his pie business, I thought I’d better give them a try.
As a big pie lover, I was beaming when I made my online order.
I bought the ‘chunky’ chicken pie from Radford’s Pie Company, but unfortunately, I wouldn’t call it a whopper.
I was really excited to try this iconic pie – especially after waiting over two weeks for it to arrive (yep, you heard that right).
It was a good size for an individual pie, and it made your bog-standard Pukka pie look tiny.
However, the insides of this pie were not appetising at all – although the Radfords described this pie as ‘chunky chicken’, I have to say, it was more like stringy chicken in my books.
Also, to make matters worse, the gross jelly-like appearance was not a bit of me.
Whilst I often see Noel’s cooking videos online, and am pretty impressed with some of his speedy dishes, I think I’ll be giving his famous pies a miss.
Stay-at-home mum Sue, who claims they have spent over £1million raising their children, recently hit back at trolls who criticised the family’s extravagant spending as she insists they work hard.
“At the end of the day, it’s our money,” she said, speaking to Femail. “We work really hard for what we have and if we want to spend it on whatever we want to spend it on, we will.”
And this is in addition to their luxury car collection, which includes a £30,000 Range Rover car, a £80,000 Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid Quarzite and a campervan which retails for £40,000.
There are many ways the Radfords support themselves, aside from Noel’s bakery, including YouTube, sponsored posts, TV and their side hustles.
TV career
The supersized family first appeared on the Channel 4 documentary television programme 15 Kids and Counting in 2012.
And just recently, the Radfords have opened their doors again to Channel 5 to film 22 Kids and Counting show in recent years.
While it’s never been disclosed how much they earn from their TV appearances, Sue has mentioned how their “media business” earns them extra money.
Brand expert Andy Barr believes Sue and Noel have been paid less than £10,000 for each show.
He told the Daily Mail: “The typical fee per episode is going to be in the thousands rather than the tens or hundreds of thousands that people often think is the case with TV shows of this nature.
“If they continue to get commissioned for a fourth or fifth season, then they are going to be able to command a higher fee.”
He currently estimates that the Radford family makes £5,000 an episode.
Book sales
Earlier this year Sue took to Instagram following the new season of their TV show to reveal they are bringing out their very first book.
The Radfords: Making Life Count was released on February 29 and shared behind-the-scenes secrets about the Lancashire-based family.
Sue said: “So many of you have asked over the years if we’ll ever bring out a book and it’s something we’ve wanted to do for a long time and now finally we’ve found time amongst the chaos of daily life to do it!”
Paid Instagram Posts
Sue and Noel’s Instagram account boasts 518,000 followers – no doubt as a result of their popularity thanks to their Channel 5 TV show.
With such a huge following, it’s no surprise that they’ve worked with many giant companies for sponsored posts.
The list includes George at Asda, EE, The Next Step, Emma mattresses and more.
Speaking to Femail, the co-founder of specialist influencer marketing agency Buttermilk, Jamie Ray, said the couple could charge up to £15,000 for a single post on their feed.
According to the publication, the family have shared 18 sponsored posts on their Instagram feed since 2020.
If they earned as much as £15,000, this would bring the figure to roughly £270,000 in three years.
Q&A with Sue and Noel Radford
With 22 kids, Sue and Noel have learnt a lot over the years.
Who is the stricter parent? Sue
Who is the naughtiest child? Archie
Do you prefer being parents or grandparents? Grandparents, you can spoil them more, and give them back at the end of the day!
What’s one thing you can’t teach your kids? Driving lessons, don’t even attempt to do them with your kids, it’s not worth it.
What’s something you’ve never told your children? We’ve never sat down with any of the kids and told them ‘this is how babies are made’. We’ve never had that conversation.
What’s your best parenting hack? Turn chores into games – making them fun to get them involved and help out.
How do you manage arguments and disagreements? There’s always someone falling out with someone else. When they get older, they have their own own opinions, and arguments get heated and last longer. We try to listen to them both, be the reasonable one, and get them to see it from both sides.