A food distribution company that’s aiming to create 150 new jobs as part of a £6 million expansion has clinched two major schools contracts worth over £2 million – including a first ever education deal in South Wales.
Harlech Foodservice has a new £1.5 million contract to provide schools in Gwynedd with a range of products including Welsh beef – following up it’s first Gwynedd contract which was signed in 2022 – as well as landing a £700,000, 12-month agreement to supply schools and care homes in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Harlech, which has its headquarters near Criccieth, in Gwynedd, and a base in Chester, has also added new depots in Merthyr Tydfil and Carmarthen and taken over rivals Celtic Foodservices in Pembroke Dock in Pembrokeshire.
The move is part of an overall £6 million plan to create 150 new jobs as part of a major expansion and they hope the Rhondda Cynon Taf deal will be the first of many.
The Gwynedd contract covers all the schools in Gwynedd, including Ysgol Llanystumdwy – where Prime Minister David Lloyd George was a pupil – just down the road from Harlech’s HQ.
There head cook Alison Green and the 28 pupils have given the Harlech service the thumbs up with Alison, whose son attended the school, saying: “It’s a lovely school and it’s like a family here because you get to know all the children and they know you.
“I even get to go on all the school trips and I pack the lunches for them – it’s great that we’ve got a local company supplying us from literally just up the road soi the deliveries are great.”
Councillor Menna Trenholme, Head of Procurement for Gwynedd Council, said: “It’s very important to us as a Council and to the parents to have a local firm supplying our schools with local produce wherever possible and it’s very important for the local economy as well.
“As a Councillor and as the mum of two small children it’s very important to me that we know that all our children are having a healthy and free meal in school every day.”
Harlech Account Manager for Gwynedd Ursula Scurrah-Price added: “It’s great that the closest school to our headquarters is supplied by us as.
“Now that free schools meals are available to all pupils we would like to encourage as many as possible to take them up.
“As a North Wales firm it’s very important to us that the quality and nutritious value of the meals in schools is as high as possible and that only the best quality is used and we work closely with Gwynedd and other councils to ensure that is the case.”
Harlech now have contracts with all six North Wales councils to supply schools and they hope the Rhondda Cynon Taf deal will be the first of many with South Wales authorities.
The opening of the new Carmarthen depot this spring following the opening of their first in South Wales in Merthyr last year was spurred by Harlech’s growth over the past three years which has seen sales increase from £32 million to a record turnover of around £50 million, with profit at an all-time high of more than £2 million.
Over the next three to five years the firm’s £6 million expansion plan will enable the company to create 100 jobs at its headquarters site and 50 jobs elsewhere.
It has been a change in strategy which has seen Harlech win a raft of public sector contracts in health and education, in addition to its core customer base in tourism and hospitality.
The firm’s Sales Director, Mark Lawton, said: “The renewal of the Gwynedd contract and our first major public sector deal in South Wales with Rhondda Cynon Taf Council enables us to demonstrate the range of products we can supply and the excellent service we provide.
“We now have a real presence right across Wales and I know the Welsh public sector has a desire to using Welsh suppliers whenever commercially possible.”
Between its five sites – a new Telford site opened this summer to service the English border counties – Harlech employs 250 staff and runs a fleet of over 50 vehicles to deliver up to 5,000 product lines to cafés, restaurants, pubs and public sector customers across the whole of Wales, Shropshire, the Midlands and the North West.
