A CRICCIETH based wholesale butcher, has opened a depot near Chester.

Award winning Harlech Foodservice has invested £120,000 in its new base on the Sealand Industrial Estate, where it already employees 10 staff, butchers, and support personnel and is looking to recruit more.

The company has its head office and butchery depot in Criccieth, where it moved in 2012 from Harlech. Overall it employs 50 staff.

In its new depot it has a butchery department and office support.

As a wholesale butchery business it supplies restaurants, hotels, schools and outside catering companies.

Mark Lawton, operations director for Harlech Foodservice, said: “We have been serving caterers for more than 45 years and have done incredibly well in North Wales. The achievements have been built on service and quality.

“Opening a butchery in Chester is a crucial step in our aim to become the go-to wholesaler for chefs in the region. We pride ourselves on offering products that are high quality, consistent, and have provenance.

“The butchery employs 10 people and is headed up by master butcher Liam Harvey, and he is supported by two time-served supervisory butchers, each with 30 years’ experience in the industry. The team also consists of junior butchers learning their trade, as well as support members of staff for packing and labelling, which allows our butchers to focus on cutting meat.

“We also have an internal software system, Nucleus, which allows for a full field to fork identify. Traceability is key in the industry and our customers can see the entire journey from the farm to the chef’s kitchen. This gives our customers trust and confidence in us and our products.”

He added: “We have invested £120,000 in the infrastructure for the Chester depot, with further investment planned for warehouse storage and a telesales team.”