Harlech Foodservice secures two major schools contracts

The Harlech Foodservice contract with Gwynedd schools includes a delivery of just a mile from its headquarters to Ysgol Llanystumdwy primary school.

Harlech Foodservice has secured two major schools contracts worth over £2 million.

The wholesaler has a new £1.5 million contract to provide schools in Gwynedd with a range of products including Welsh beef. This follows its first Gwynedd contract which was signed in 2022. Harlech has also landed a £700,000, 12-month agreement to supply schools and care homes in Rhondda Cynon Taf.

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 now has contracts with all six North Wales councils to supply schools and it hopes that the Rhondda Cynon Taf deal will be the first of many with South Wales authorities.

The move is part of an overall £6 million plan by Harlech to create 150 new jobs as part of a major expansion. It has been a change in strategy that 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.

Harlech’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, including a new Telford site that 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.