A WELSH food distribution company has created over 70 new jobs and won over £1 million in contracts as a major expansion gathers pace.

Harlech Foodservice, which has bases in Criccieth, Chester, Carmarthen, Merthyr Tydfil and Telford, has gained 943 new independent customers and won 243 new contract customers across Wales and the border counties of England since April.

They range from individual shops and businesses to major local authority deals such as a contract to supply drinks and snacks to Shire Services, the catering and cleaning arm of Shropshire Council, while their move into South and West Wales has also borne fruit.

Harlech supply schools across Rhondda Cynon Taf and since that success have won contracts worth nearly £500,000 from their new depots in Carmarthen and Merthyr Tydfil.

They have signed up Football League clubs Tranmere Rovers and Bristol Rovers, Everybody Health and Leisure Centres who run 17 centres for Cheshire East Council, and Hickory’s Smokehouses who have 25 restaurants as far afield as Leeds, Lincoln and Gloucester.

In Shropshire opening a hub at Telford was key to the deal with Shire who don’t just supply schools, colleges and care homes throughout Shropshire but also across Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Cheshire and even North Wales.

The raft of new contracts have come after Harlech launched a £6 million expansion strategy and the company’s well ahead of schedule in meeting its target of creating 150 jobs over the next five years.

The plan was spurred by the company’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.

Harlech Sales Director, Mark Lawton, said: “These new contracts enable us to demonstrate the range of products we can supply and the excellent service we provide across a huge area of the country.

“We now have a real presence throughout Wales and across the border into the North West from our base in Chester and into the Midlands from Telford and I know that opening these new bases has been key in signing these new deals.

“Shire provide meals for about 100 schools in Shropshire alone and the opening of the Telford depot in June was important in winning that contract.

“Cutting food miles and employing local people at local bases is a key factor in gaining contracts in the public sector and so is providing a flexible and efficient service and that’s something we pride ourselves on.

“We are flexible so we can provide our national account customers like local authorities with the best price along with consistency and quality of service while also working with them on social and community benefit and environmental factors.

“On the independent side we know what they want and we’ve been supplying them for over 50 years – we are a family-owned business ourselves. We’ve got their back so we lock their prices in and we don’t sneak them up.”

Earlier this year Harlech opened the new depot in Carmarthen and took over rivals Celtic Foodservice in Pembroke Dock in Pembrokeshire.

Managing Director David Cattrall said: “We have actively gone about disrupting the way foodservice companies have traditionally operated.

“We have rejected the common practice of having inflated prices and increasing ‘negotiated’ prices without notice.

“Instead we successfully launched our Trust Our Prices strategy last year with transparent and competitive pricing, backed up by excellent customer service.

“It means our customers can order up to 10pm for next day deliveries six days a week.

“The acquisition of Celtic Foodservices is another new and important milestone our drive to provide a first class service to new and existing customers in every single corner of Wales.”

The business was launched in 1972 by Shropshire couple Colin and Gill Foskett who took over a failing frozen food company and transformed it into a successful business.

The founders’ three children, Jonathan, Andrew and Laura, took over from their parents and still sit on the board and the third generation of the family are now making their way in the firm.

For more on Harlech Foodservice go to https://www.harlech.co.uk/

The Royal George pub has announced the closure of its kitchen until further notice, citing a significant decline in customers due to local construction works. The announcement, made yesterday, follows ongoing disruptions caused by the closure of the South Quay Car Park and the commencement of major building projects in the surrounding area.

In a statement, the pub’s proprietor Phil Lewis expressed deep regret over the decision, explaining that the impact of the construction on their food service has been profound. “After a great deal of thought and with reluctance, I have come to the decision to close our kitchen due to a significant decline in custom,” he said. The Landlord also noted that the disruption is expected to worsen as the construction project continues over the next 18 months.

The kitchen closure comes after a steady drop in food sales, which he attributed directly to the reduced footfall in the area. “Food sales have dramatically slumped and cannot sustain continued trading to the standards that Mandy and I have worked so hard to uphold,” he added.

Despite the kitchen closure, the Royal George will remain open for business. Phil has reassured patrons that bar services, including the sale of ales, wines, and spirits, will not be affected. “The pub will battle on!” he declared, thanking regular customers for their continued support over the years.

The pub hopes to resume kitchen services once the disruptions subside and some level of normality returns.

A RESUBMITTED scheme for a gin distillery as part of a B&B in the centre of Britain’s smallest city has been turned down by Pembrokeshire national park planners, with hopes the applicant may try a third time as a distillery only.

Last October, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park planners refused an application by Neil Walsh for a change of use of the exiting guest house at St Davids Distillery, Restaurant & Rooms, 11-13 Nun Street, St Davids to include the bar/restaurant and distillery.

The plans for the Grade II-listed property had drawn 23 responses of concern, including intensification of use from the bar, impacts on local amenity, and Health and Safety concerns about the installation of a still and the use of ethanol, with fears of a fire and explosion risk.

The scheme – supported by St David’s City Council – was partly retrospective as the gin still had been installed, but was not currently in use, in the distillery sited below existing bedrooms at the guesthouse.

The latest application, a mixed use of 11-13 Nun Street as a bed and breakfast and housing part of the gin distillery plant, was again recommended for refusal. At the October 16 meeting of the park’s development management committee.

It was proposed that the ethanol and botanicals would be stored off-site and brought onto the premises only when distilling is taking place; 30 days a year, with no guests on site.

There were 15 letters of objection to the scheme, raising concerns including it “could result in death, injuries and large-scale damage to property”.

An officer report said mitigation measures suggested in order to minimise the risk associated with ethanol for gin production “would not, in the opinion of the authority, be reasonable, practical or enforceable”.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Walsh said the scheme would help safeguard 11 jobs by diversifying the existing business, with hopes of creating further jobs in the future.

Mr Walsh, who owns a nearby restaurant, had said tourism had declined as there had been “confidence back for the UK market to travel abroad,” and gin production would help market St Davids as a global brand.

Addressing safety concerns, he said the still, sited retrospectively in order to comply with distillery licensing, had been installed by a “world-class master distiller,” who had previously installed a still some two-and-a-half times larger on a P&O ferry.

He told members the ‘spirit tourism’ business was worth hundreds of millions of pounds in the UK, with Welsh Government funding for a Penderyn distillery visitor centre, adding: “if this was dangerous and irregular why have government given money?”

A sticking point for members was the sharing of the distillery with the B&B, pondering whether Mr Walsh – who was broadly positive – could resubmit an application for a distillery only, after hearing that could not be suggested as an amendment to the existing scheme.

Moving the application be refused, Cllr Di Clements said: “It’s a real shame because it’s such a good idea, nobody is against what Mr Walsh wants to do; it’s the combination which is the issue, I hope Mr Walsh can come back with another application if this fails.”

Dr Rosetta Plummer, who seconded refusal, praised the applicant’s “passion and clarity,” adding: “Unfortunately, we are bound to make a judgement on what is before us today.”

The scheme was refused by 12 votes to two.