Harlech Foodservice has secured two significant school contracts valued at over £2 million, marking its first education partnership in South Wales.
One of the contracts, valued at £1.5 million, involves supplying schools in Gwynedd, North Wales, with a variety of products, including Welsh beef. The other is a £700,000, 12-month agreement to provide schools and care homes in Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales, with food supplies.
The Gwynedd contract encompasses all schools in the region, including Ysgol Llanystumdwy, located near Harlech Foodservice’s headquarters in Criccieth.
The school’s head cook Alison Green said: “It’s great that we’ve got a local company supplying us from literally just up the road so 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.”
Harlech account manager for Gwynedd, Ursula Scurrah-Price, added: “It’s great that the closest school to our headquarters is supplied by us.
“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.”
The wholesaler now holds contracts with all six North Wales councils to supply food to schools.
Harlech, which also operates a base in Chester, recently expanded by adding new depots in Merthyr Tydfil, Carmarthen, and Telford, and acquiring competitor Celtic Foodservices in Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire. This growth is part of a broader £6 million plan over the next three to five years, aiming to create 150 new jobs as part of a major expansion initiative.
This expansion is driven by Harlech’s growth over the past three years, during which sales have risen from £32 million to a record turnover of approximately £50 million, with profits reaching an all-time high of over £2 million.