Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate family. It won’t be just the visitors to the Rhug Estate that will be celebrating Mother’s Day next Sunday, 11 March 2018, however, as some staff at the Rhug have their mothers working with them on the Estate – and their aunty, and their brother, and their cousin!
Ninety percent of the 115 staff that work at the Rhug live within 10 miles of the Estate. Lord Newborough, the owner of the Rhug Estate, always tries to employ locally and believes the staff feel like an extension of his own family.
Lord Newborough said, “The success of the Rhug is very much down to the effort and loyalty of the staff. When I took over the Estate in 1998 there were nine employees and over the past 20 years we’ve expanded to our current total of 115 and growing. I’m proud of the fact I have employees that have stayed with me since I took over.”
Amongst those that work at the Rhug are five members of the same family, all from Corwen. Caroline Evans started working for the Rhug first and has now been there for three years. Caroline is the ‘On the Hoof’ Take Away supervisor. She encouraged her younger sister, Jane Williams, to apply for the position of Take Away Assistant and she’s now been in that position for two years. Caroline’s daughter Gemma also started working for the Rhug two years ago as a Shop Assistant and is now the Deli Assistant in the Farm Shop.
Then 18 months ago Gemma’s brother Stephen started working for the Rhug in the Cutting Plant. Jane’s son Michael also started working for the Rhug as a Kitchen Porter in the Bistro last July. He works part time while he studies for his AS Levels in school.
Caroline said that surprisingly she doesn’t actually see much of the rest of her family, day to day, in work. She said laughing, “Both myself and my sister have five children each so there’s potential for more family members to join the staff at the Rhug in the future. We all work in different departments of the Estate so it doesn’t affect our relationship at all. We’re also lucky that we can all take holidays at the same time as we enjoy large family breaks together.”
In the run-up to Mother’s Day the Rhug Farm Shop is selling a variety of gifts and unique hand-made cards. The Rhug Bistro will be offering a special Mother’s Day menu between 11.30am and 5pm on Mother’s Day weekend and mums will receive a free glass of Prosecco and chocolates with their meal.
Pictured from left to right: Gemma McCook; Caroline Evans; Stephen McCook; Lord Newborough; Michael Walsh and Jane Williams.
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