Bodnant Welsh Food boss quits a day after she gave THIS interview to Daily Post

The boss of Bodnant Welsh Food has quit just a day after admitting the centre had “lost its way”.

It’s unclear why Sandra Derbyshire, who had been at the centre for 12 months, has resigned. But her resignation came on the same day a Daily Post interview was published with Sandra admitting the £6m centre suffered from issues like staff friction and high employee turnover, a loss of focus on Welsh produce and the mislabelling incident that damaged the centre’s reputation.

Bodnant Welsh Foods boss Sandra Derbyshire interview in full

Sandra who started working at Bodnant last April as a consultant to oversee the shop and tearoom after 30 years working for Sainsbury’s, B&Q and Asda, said there had also been too many changes, leaving customers “confused”.

Referring to the Hayloft restaurant she said: “We have changed the offer, we have confused people, we had not got it right.

“It was about us losing our way in what we were all about.”

On the farm shop, she said: “It lost its way, became more about filling the farm shop with product that they believed would sell.”

Talking about the issues, she said: “The centre was successful to start but every business hits its pinnacle and then there is a plateau. There was also too much change going on.”

In a statement the Bodnant directors thanked Sandra for her contribution.

They said: “In the 10 months that she has been with the food centre, Sandra has brought the business on by leaps and bounds.

“The company wishes to pay tribute to Sandra and thank her for all that she has achieved at Bodnant Welsh Food. She has championed a number of new initiatives and leaves the business in a healthy state.

“We have all enjoyed working with her, we will miss her industry and devotion to the business, and she leaves with our very best wishes.”

The statement continued: “The owners of Bodnant Welsh Food Centre also thank all of our loyal and hard-working employees for their dedication to the business. They are excited by the vision for the future as the business develops and grows.

They look forward to working with all those at Bodnant in taking the business forward to new heights.”

The centre which was opened in 2012 by Prince Charles, has had a number of issues involving its senior staff.

Sandra took over when the operations director Conrad Jones left last July quitting after just six months into the job.

Also last year an employment tribunal in Prestatyn heard the former managing director Chris Morton made offensive comments of a transgender, homophobic and sexist nature to staff although he was later cleared of any wrongdoing. Another scandal that damaged the centre’s reputation was the mislabelling error last year.

They were forced to apologise to a customer after the “Welsh” gammon she bought turned out to be from Belgium.

Following her departure Simon Burrows, Bodnant’s Business Development Manager, will cover the operational, day-to-day side of the General Manager role on an interim basis while a new General Manager is recruited.

The food centre, which includes a farm shop, cafe, restaurant and the Welsh Bee Centre, employs 60 people and attracts around 250,000 visitors a year.