Pub group giving warm Welsh ‘Croeso’ to food and drink from Wales

A growing independent hospitality business, based in south east Wales, is reaping the rewards after successfully introducing a range of Welsh food and drink to its menus for the first time.

Cardiff-based Croeso Pubs operates eight businesses within the city and the surrounding areas. These are the Philharmonic, The Dock, Retro, Brewhouse, The Blue Bell, Daffodil, The Discovery and the Bear’s Head.

Having decided to place a greater emphasis on Welsh produce at their establishments, they sought the support of the Welsh Government’s Food & Drink Wales Foodservice Programme. As a result, there has been an increase in the availability of Welsh products across their outlets, along with introducing ‘Proud to Serve Welsh’ marketing materials to further help illustrate their provenance.

This includes The Bear’s Head in Penarth, which they recently took over from JD Wetherspoon. Further underlying the value of Welsh produce to consumers, despite the business model being different to JD Wetherspoon’s in terms of pricing, the 11 Welsh producers and 21 different products that are available has resulted in sales being ahead of forecast, and the produce being well received by customers.

The Food & Drink Wales Foodservice Programme has been working with a range of pub chains, as it seeks to grow the industry and create jobs by securing contracts into Welsh and UK markets.

This includes working with large scale national operators such as Marston’s, Greene King, Punch Pubs, Valiant pubs, Compass Group and Bidfood, as well as Wales-based operators such as Croeso Pubs, The Welsh House, Blas ar Fwyd, Castell Howell and Harlech Foodservice.

An updated ‘Value of Welshness’ report published in 2023, which looked into consumer perceptions of Welsh food and drink, found that 9 out of 10 guests wanted a good selection of Welsh ingredients on the menu, with 8 out of 10 saying a good Welsh drinks range was key to their choice of venue. These findings applied more so to younger visitors but were significantly high across all ages. 6 out of 10 people surveyed reported they would be more likely to visit a venue with a good range of Welsh products, whilst 25% said they would actively avoid somewhere with no Welsh food and drink.

One of the producers now being featured on Croeso Pubs menus is Hirwaun-based The Authentic Curry Company. With three of their products available at The Bear’s Head, Managing Director Paul Trotman spoke of the importance of Welsh businesses working together for their mutual benefit. He said, “Following a very productive meeting and product presentation with Executive Chef, Jamie Newman, I am delighted to see that our products are now appearing throughout the Croeso Pub Group menus.

“We work very hard to ensure we maintain very high-quality products, value for money and of course a highly creative new product development operation.

“We know producers in Wales have fantastic products to sell. We are blessed with a superb array of Welsh raw materials, and utilising these local ingredients benefits both primary producers and manufacturers. The final piece of this jigsaw is the hospitality industry getting on board, as this will benefit everyone across the supply chain, and the Welsh economy generally.”

Craig Davies, one of the Directors of Croeso Pubs, said it was a no-brainer to increase the range of Welsh produce that they offered, which has so far paid off. He said, “We came to the decision about a year ago that we’d like to increase the range of local produce on offer, having identified the added value that Welsh food and drink could bring to the business. Since then, we have updated the menus at most of our pubs, including introducing a range of Welsh drinks, such as five different wines.

“The support we have received from the Food & Drink Wales Foodservice Programme has been fantastic. It has helped us meet some of the challenges, such as sourcing a reliable supply of Welsh beef, as well as introducing us to a range of producers that we didn’t know existed.

“We’ve been really pleased with the results so far, and hope to build on this into the future. Ultimately, this isn’t only helping the Welsh economy, it is also giving our customers what they want, which is quality food and drink that’s produced to high standards.”

The Food & Drink Wales Foodservice Programme is one of a suite of programmes Welsh Government have in place to achieve their ambition for Welsh businesses to become more productive, profitable and competitive.

The programme targets support across the foodservice, hospitality and wholesale sectors, raising the profile of Welsh food and drink and encouraging growth of Welsh produce across markets in Wales and the UK. The latest statistics published over the summer showed how the industry in Wales grew by 10% over the last year, with businesses having a total turnover of £24.6bn in 2023, compared to £22.3bn in 2022.

Speaking on the important work of the Food & Drink Wales Foodservice Programme, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Huw Irranca-Davies MS said, “Getting more Welsh produce served within the UK hospitality industry is really important to us, and it’s heartening to see the hard work paying off with businesses such as Croeso Pubs seeing the value of serving their customers food and drink from Wales.

“Research shows that the demand is there from customers, and we’ll continue to work with businesses, both large and small, to help break down the barriers and make serving Welsh produce as easy as possible. I look forward to visiting one of Croeso Pubs’ establishments in the near future to enjoy my own little taste of Wales.”

Further information on Food & Drink Wales, and their Foodservice Programme, can be found at gov.wales/foodanddrink