An Isle of Man organisation that will soon be celebrating its 120th birthday has joined forces with Gef’s 30 Under 30 campaign to help support the island’s future by investing in its youth. Farmers Combine is partnering with the campaign’s Disruptors category for 2025.

‘I was blown away by the amount of talent involved in Gef’s campaign, all under the age of 30’, Farmers Combine’s Mark Corrin says.

‘From our point of view, we feel we should involve ourselves with promoting young people. Farmers Combine has been around for more than 100 years, and we feel we should support the future.’

The ability to remain current is something Mark says has kept the organisation alive, by continuously adapting to the ever-changing needs of locals. It’s for that reason, Mark thinks being a partner of the Disruptors category is a good fit.

‘When you look at the how long the company has been around, it has rebuilt in order to succeed. So, I think we fit in well with the Disruptors. We figure we're building for the future by helping these young people to grow and get airtime, so others are aware of them and their work.’

Farmers Combine has made a home for itself in Ramsey and has been there for the last 119 years. They sell a wide range of products, reaching up to 7,000 different items on their website, which has recently been revamped and was officially launched at this year’s Royal Manx Agricultural Show.

‘As our motto says, “we're not just here for farmers, we're here for you.” The market has changed in terms of the farming side of things, it’s not so large for us as it once was. So, we realised we needed to build on the house, animals, and garden products. And we thought, “how are we going to do this?” So, we've spent several months developing this new website, which is vastly different to what our original offering was.’

The website is aesthetically pleasing and straight-forward to use. All you have to do is create an account, then simply order your items, which then get delivered island-wide, a service included in the cost.

Bringing things back to Farmers Combine’s support of the Gef 30 Under 30, I asked Mark why he thinks it’s important the island has campaigns celebrating young people.

‘We were overwhelmed by the calibre and energy of the young professionals here on the island. So many amazing entrepreneurs in a focused group really does inspire me for the future of the Isle of Man! It is, in my opinion, time to really get behind this bevvy of amazing quality, innovative, and emerging entrepreneurs, and we are more than happy to be involved and support the Gef 30 Under 30 campaign.’