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The growth follows the wholesaler winning over £1m in public contracts this autumn, and opening two new depots this year, in Telford and Carmarthen.

A “raft of new contracts” ranging from supplying schools, care homes and colleges in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Cheshire, to school contracts worth £500,000, had contributed to the progress, Harlech said.

“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,” said Harlech Foodservice sales director Mark Lawton.

“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.

“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.”

The company had around 200 employees during the year to 30 July, according to its accounts.

Harlech Foodservice staff dropped in at Cilymaenllwyd Care Home, at Pwll, near Llanelli, bearing gifts of tasty treats and wearing Flower Power era hippie gear.

It was all a bit of fun and a thankyou to the care home who have been one of the first to sign up as customers for the fast-growing Gwynedd-based company which has recently opened South Wales distribution centres in Carmarthen and Merthyr.

Harlech Regional Sales Manager for South Wales Nick Sullivan and his team got into the spirit of the event and he said: “It’s been a lot of fun and I think the residents and staff at Cilymaenllwyd really enjoyed it.

“It was our way of saying thank you for their faith in us because we believe that in Wales customers like the idea of using a Welsh supplier who have a belief in using products from Wales whenever possible.

“That’s what Harlech believe in and why not because Wales is recognised for producing some of the finest food in the country.

“The tasty snacks we brought along for the residents certainly went down a treat and we all had a great day together.

“We were there for over three hours and had a lot of fun and afterwards one of the residents said, ‘It’s been the best day – when are you coming back’.”

Care Home Manager Vicky Richards said: “It was a fantastic afternoon. It was really good fun and the residents loved it.

“The staff from Harlech were great. They did karaoke and played Velcro-tennis and the interaction between them and the residents was very good and they served up mocktails and some tasty treats which everyone enjoyed.

“We switched suppliers to Harlech a few weeks ago and the service has been excellent and they’ve been very attentive and Nick has sorted out any issues very quickly.”

Harlech Foodservice, which has its headquarters near Criccieth, in Gwynedd, and also has bases in Merthyr Tydfil, Carmarthen and Chester, has landed a £700,000, 12-month agreement to supply grocery products to schools and care homes in Rhondda Cynon Taf.

They hope this is the first of many new deals with South Wales authorities and in North Wales they have also retained a major £1.5 million contract to supply schools and care homes in Gwynedd.

Harlech has also taken over rivals Celtic Foodservices in Pembroke Dock in Pembrokeshire as part of its ongoing expansion in South Wales.

Gavin Davies, South Wales Account Manager, from Gelli, near Treorchy, went to school in Rhondda Cynon Taf, at Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhondda, and joined Harlech from wholesale giants Bidfood last year.

He said: “I’m delighted that our first schools contract is right on my doorstep as we’ll be supplying my old school as well as all the schools across Rhonda Cynon Taf along with care homes and theatres.

“We’re now the primary supplier for drinks, school-compliant confectionery and snacks and a secondary supplier for other products and we’ve won the contract through being accepted onto the Welsh Procurement Services Framework which has been very important for us.

“We supply Welsh products whenever possible and major drinks suppliers include Radnor Springs while our range also include other snacking products, including cake bars and biscuits which are all school-compliant with reduced sugar.

“There is a genuine customer need for another Welsh wholesaler in South Wales and there are other public sector bodies wanting to talk to us.

“Having depots in Merthyr and Carmarthen definitely helps us . They’ve been a game changer for us.

“It’s a massive opportunity for us and it’s been a very good career move for me.” The opening of the new Carmarthen depot this spring 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.

One of the major reasons for the growth was a change of 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.

Over the next three to five years the £6 million expansion plan will enable the company to create 100 jobs at its headquarters site and 50 jobs elsewhere.

The firm’s Sales Director, Mark Lawton, said: “This new contract in Rhondda Cynon Taf will enable 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 four sites 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.

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 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.

“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.

“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.

Food distribution giants Harlech Foodservice, who supply Denbighshire schools during term time, delivered the ingredients and the pupils of Ysgol Borthyn in Ruthin produced the pizzas.

They were given dough to roll out before the spread tomato sauce and then added a selection of tasty ingredients before adding a cheesy topping.

The children – and their Food and Fun supervisors, teaching assistants Marian Chambers, Nic Minshull and Fiona Royles - enjoyed getting hands-on with the ingredients.

Megan, aged 5, said: “It’s been good. I’ve loved coming to school for Food and Fun” and James, eight, said: “I love spaghetti but I like pizza too.”

Marian said: “Food and Fun has been running for three weeks into the summer holidays and the children have really enjoyed it – we’ve had about 40 of them here most days.

“We have had plenty of activities including an Olympics themed day with flags of different nations, an Olympic torch and a relay race.

“It’s part of a Welsh Government scheme and the children have breakfast and lunch here and they get the chance to try new and different food as part of a healthy eating programmeand they take part in physical activities as well.

“They go home after lunch but some of them have been asking if they can stay all day because they’ve enjoyed it so much.

“A lot of them have tried food they’ve never had before – some of them have never had pizza – and they also have salads and fruit.”

Harlech Foodservice’s Ursula Scurrah-Price and Britney Loughborough, the Local Account Manager who organises the orders for Ysgol Borthyn and other local schools, hospitals and businesses, oversaw the event and the delivery of the ingredients.

Ursula said: “This is part of the work we are doing with schools across North Wales this summer and at a number of schools we have been providing pizza-making sessions to give the children a taste for making food.

“It’s such a healthy thing to do and helps them learn about the value of good food and the pleasure you can get not just from eating it but from preparing it too. “It helps them learn about the value of good, healthy ingredients and we have included at least one vegetable in each pizza and ensured they have the right kind of cheese, mozzarella.

“It’s also important to learn about the right use of quantities – we don’t want too much tomato. No-one wants a soggy bottom.”

“It’s so important for young people to learn about the value of good food at an early age and to understand and enjoy preparing healthy and tasty meals and hopefully it encourages the whole family to get involved.”

Gone are the days of filling up containers from the tap and instead the players will be quenching their thirst with bottles of White Rock Still Water supplied as a sponsorship deal with Harlech Foodservice.

The carbon footprint couldn’t be much smaller either with Harlech’s Chester depot on Bumpers Lane just a few hundred yards from the football club’s Deva Stadium and to boost the Blues’ green credentials the bottles have smaller labels and are made from lightweight recycled plastic.

Another new signing is ex-Curzon Ashton goalkeeper Cam Mason whose matchday equipment will include a bottle of White Rock and he said: “It’s vital to keep hydrated and it’s a real positive to have a quality product like this to drink.

“Chester is a massive club at this level and they’ve got ambitious plans and I hope the experience I bring will help them this season.”

Chester General Manager Albert Davies said: “Support like this from Harlech Foodservice is so valuable to us as a fan-owned club because it makes a big difference to the team.

“It’s fantastic and we really appreciate the backing we are receiving from Harlech who are such near neighbours of ours and who supply the GWG Catering outlets at the club.

“We’re really excited about the new season. We’ve made some big signings including Cam, players who have been promoted before, so we are very optimistic and feel we can have a really memorable campaign with Calum McIntyre as manager.”

The connection with Harlech Foodservice even extends to Harlech’s Regional Sales Manager for the UK Simon Fowles who was with Chester as a schoolboy while the deal was clinched by Marie Clerkin, Account Manager for Chester.

She said: “It’s a nice short run for us to supply the caterers here at Chester FC and as a local business we want to support an important institution like the football club.

“They are a community club and we want to get behind them and help them get back to where they belong.

“They have really loyal supporters and they have stuck with them through thick and thin and let’s hope they have some success this season.”

A chance meeting between David Cattrall, Managing Director of Harlech Foodservice, and Matthew Farrall, who heads major North-Wales-based haulier Farrall’s has led to the deal.

It will see Harlech, founded in 1972 by Colin and Gill Foskett, from Wellington, in Shropshire, operate in an area of Farrall’s new site in Telford in Shropshire and give them a foothold in an area they have identified as ripe for growth.

It is part of an ambitious expansion programme which has seen the Criccieth-based business open two new sites in South Wales in the past 12 months, in Merthyr Tydfil last year and Carmarthen earlier this year where 15 sales staff and drivers have already been recruited and snap up rivals Celtic Foodservices, based in Pembroke Dock in Pembrokeshire.

The Telford opening is part of a £6 million plan to create 150 new jobs and has been fired by the company’s growth over the past three years which has seen sales increase from £32 million to a record £50 million and profits of more than £2 million. Ian Evans, Harlech’s Head of Operations, said: “At that meeting David mentioned that we were looking for a new base in that area and it turned out that Farrall’s had just opened a new site in Telford and there was spare capacity.

“They’ve agreed that we can use the site as a base to work from and initially we will employ five drivers there along with another driver here in Criccieth. “Both businesses are expanding and have ambitions to grow in the same areas so it makes sense to work together.

“Farrall’s are operating in different parts of the country and it makes sense to work together so we can serve our customers better from what is a new gateway to the West Midlands.

“Both companies have shared values, we are both transitioning towards net zero and both have ambitions to grow so it makes sense to work together. “Initially we are basing five lorries there but as opportunities to grow occur we could have a greater presence.”

Farrall’s are based on the Deeside Industrial Estate and Managing Director Matthew Farrall said: “We are constantly looking for new markets and new areas to operate in and in the last 18 months we have added sites in Newport in South Wales and Sandycroft on Deeside and in November in Telford.

“This is a relatively new area for us but we see it’s potential and there is spare capacity on the site which we’re happy to partner with Harlech.

“We believe in forging partnerships with other businesses to the benefit of both and that is the case here – we are both in the distribution business but not in competition so this makes sense.

“We share many of the same business principles as Harlech – both companies are growing and at the same time are committed to reducing their carbon footprint in sectors where that isn’t easy to do but we have both taken steps to do so. “Partnership working is a positive which can benefit both companies and this is something we can continue as both look to grow their markets.”

Princes Gate bottled water from Pembrokeshire, samosas and Indian delicacies from SamosaCo of Pontyclun, bread from Jones Village Bakery in Wrexham and Jones Crisps from Gwynedd are just some of the Welsh products stocked courtesy of Harlech.

The company, based near Criccieth in Gwynedd has embarked on a £6 million expansion and has added new bases in Merthyr Tydfil and Carmarthen to target contracts right across Wales. .

Key Account Manager Laura Griffiths clinched the deal with Cardiff Airport and she said: “We are supplying lines with a real Welsh flavour and provenance for the 51° Lounge at Cardiff Airport which is a really prestigious contract for us. .

“It means customers from around the world are getting a real taste of Wales with top quality products from across the country. .

“It’s very much a Welsh first policy there and we can offer that range of food and drink from Wales and back it up with a top quality service with flexible delivery when they want it from our new depots in Merthyr and Carmarthen.” .

Cardiff Airport is the national airport for Wales, providing economic benefit, jobs, and ensuring global connectivity. .

Earlier this year the airport announced Icelandic low-cost carrier PLAY airlines is providing direct flights to Keflavík this autumn, allowing customers to travel onwards to New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, and Toronto. .

Lee Smith, Head of Business Development at Cardiff Wales Airport, said: “Our new partnership with Harlech means our customers are benefiting from quality Welsh products at Cardiff Wales Airport. .

“We’re really proud of our 51°Executive Lounge and its locally produced offerings. Our customers regularly tell us they love the food and beverage options available. .

“We look forward to our passengers enjoying a taste of Wales before they jet off on their travels from Cardiff.” .

Harlech Managing Director David Cattrall added: “Having bases in Merthyr and Carmarthen is a key part of our £6 million growth plan and give us a strong presence right across Wales and enables us to compete for contracts throughout the country. .

“We now see Cardiff and South Wales generally as an area which we are very well set up to serve and be competitive in and being able to offer Welsh products is important to us and to our customers. .

“Harlech Foodservice is a proudly Welsh company and opening depots in Merthyr and Carmarthen means we can now serve the whole of the nation with the same level of high quality service, allied to fantastic products at hugely competitive prices.” .

Harlech operate from bases at Criccieth, in Gwynedd, Chester, Merthyr Tydfil, Carmarthen and Talford and between the five locations, the company has increased employment to 250 staff and is running 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. .

The move is part of an overall £6 million plan to create 150 new jobs and comes a few months after Harlech opened a new depot in Carmarthen where 15 sales staff and drivers have already been recruited.

It 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.

According to Harlech, which has other bases in Merthyr Tydfil, Criccieth in Gwynedd and Chester, the expansion is being driven by the growing demand from customers in South West Wales, particularly in the hospitality sector.

All 12 members of staff at Celtic Foodservices are transferring to Harlech, including director Jason Davies, and the premises in Pembroke Dock will also be part of the new set-up.

Harlech Managing Director David Cattrall said: “I am delighted we have successfully acquired Celtic Foodservice and this strategic acquisition is a significant step forward in our mission to expand our footprint into South Wales.

“Celtic Foodservice has built a strong reputation for delivering high-quality products and exceptional service to its customers.

“By integrating Celtic Foodservice into our operations, we are poised to deliver even greater value to our customers through an expanded range of products, improved logistics, and enhanced customer service capabilities.

“I am excited about the opportunities this acquisition brings and am committed to ensuring a smooth transition for all Celtic Foodservice customers and employees.

“Our combined resources and expertise will enable us to better serve the foodservice industry, driving growth and innovation.

“I am looking forward to welcoming Jason Davies and the Celtic Foodservice team to the Harlech family and working together to achieve new heights in the industry.”

Mr Cattrall added Harlech was responding to the challenges faces by hotels, pubs and restaurants with “aggressively competitive” prices.

He said: “There is clearly a big appetite for our approach in 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 have launched our new Trust Our Prices strategy with transparent and competitive pricing, backed up by excellent customer service.

“And to make life easier our customers can order up to 10pm, with 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.”