Harlech Foodservice celebrate 50 years

Harlech Foodservice, founded in 1972 by Shropshire couple Colin and Gill Foskett, is celebrating its 50th anniversary and aiming to increase turnover to £50 million in the next three years.

Foskett’s brothers, Fred and Stephen, who joined the business and the founders’ three children, Jonathan, Andrew and Laura, who took over from their parents and still sit on the board, are the third generation of the family now heading up the firm.

The business now employs over 200 staff at sites at Criccieth and Chester while its fleet of lorries and vans delivers over 5,000 product lines to cafés, restaurants, pubs and public sector customers across North and Mid-Wales, Shropshire, the Midlands and the North West.

Chairman, Jonathan Foskett said: “It was a small seasonal business when it started but it has grown slowly and steadily over the years until now it operates year-round with full-time staff and a fleet of vehicles.

“The tourism industry was 95 per cent of the original business, supplying hotels, guest houses and holiday and caravan parks across what is now Gwynedd and very much part-time in the winter.

“But once we began taking on contracts with schools and colleges it became a year-round service, and we were able to keep staff on full-time and create real quality jobs which have helped the local economy.”

Laura Foskett, whose daughters, Ella and Milli, work in the business during school holidays, added: “We were involved in the family firm from the age of 10 and we didn’t have summer holidays because it was always work, work, work then.

“Our parents certainly didn’t envisage it becoming the size it is now but it’s something to be really proud of and it’s good to see so many of the next generation involved – it’s part of their lives just as it was part of ours.”

Managing director David Cattrall is now in day to day charge of the company’s ambitious new business plan which aims to increase turnover to over £50 million in the next three years.

He added: “We used the time in lockdown to make sure we were ready for the re-opening of tourism and hospitality with a major restructuring which has included quadrupling online sales since upgrading our website and introducing an ‘order up to 10pm for next day delivery’ service.

“We have built new management teams and invested in our people’s skills to increase our delivery capacity and we are already the reward with three major new contracts across Wales and into England.

“I am confident that by providing an improved range of products at transparent and competitive prices and strengthening our service more and more customers will choose Harlech Foodservice as their supplier."

Picture: managing director David Cattrall with the Foskett family, from left, Jonathan, Laura, Hari, Milli, Ella, Toby and Andrew. Picture by Rick Matthews.