A food industry big hitter has taken the helm at one of the region’s best known brands at a time of crisis and jobs cuts - but has ambitious plans for major growth in the future.
David Cattrall, 49, a former pupil of Ysgol Friars, in Bangor and Saturday boy at Iceland, has been appointed managing director at distribution company Harlech Foodservice which has its HQ in Criccieth, and a base in Chester.
It comes at a time of crisis in the food service sector and his first task is to help restructure the business - with 16 jobs under threat.
But as well as fire fighting in the present he is planning for the future with the aim of increasing turnover from £33m to £50m in the next five years.
Mr Cattrall, who lives in Beddgelert, has known the Foskett family who own Harlech Foodservice for a number of years and more recently did some consultancy work for them.
Then in January of this year he was appointed as a non-executive director with a view to him becoming MD at the end of 2020 but Covid-19 has accelerated the process.
The challenge now is to restructure the business so that it is well placed to prosper in the post-pandemic world, with the North West and Midlands being targeted as growth areas.
He said: “Our aim is to change the focus of the business to allow us to grow. The current crisis is forcing us to adapt and we are aiming to make changes with the future in mind.
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“One important thing we are introducing is transparent, fixed pricing for our all customers, rather than the norm in the industry of inflated list prices that require negotiating line by line.”
After university Mr Cattrall rejected the chance to go to univeristy and was offered a trainee manager’s job at Flintshire-based Iceland after working weekends for them and earning extra pocket money while in school.
It was the first rung on the corporate ladder which saw a meteoric rise, including roles with Marks and Spencer and Booker Wholesale with whom he ended up as sales director of their catering division where turnover was measured in billions.
He is now focused on helping Harlch grow.
He said: “We want to make it much easier for people to buy from us so we’ll move to a modern website and app to enable customers to search more easily, just like Amazon, so you can compare range, price and product information and make an instant decision.”
He added: “We’re very strong in North Wales and we want to continue to expand further and faster in the North West of England and the Midlands. There is also scope to grow our business in the education and healthcare sectors.
“At the moment we’re a £33 million pound business and we hope to grow to at least £50 million over the next five years.
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“My job is to make Harlech simpler so that we do the good things well – sourcing at a good price so we can provide our customers with competitive prices on their core range of products.
“In the short term, we’re trying to be optimistic around what happens to the business. We have seen some foodservice companies raise prices just when the hospitality sector needs help and support. We have done the opposite and invested in staples like oil, chicken, milk and chips.”
Director Andrew Foskett, who was previously joint managing director with brother Jonathan, said: “We’re delighted to have been able to appoint David to take Harlech Foodservice to the next level.
“Current circumstances have dictated that he has taken the reins sooner than we originally envisaged but David is the right person to help us navigate this difficult period and lay the foundations for the future.”