Puneet Arora

With over twenty-four years’ experience in the food industry – thirteen at Managerial/Director level, I have worked with some of the world’s most influential business leaders in the food industry. As Deputy Managing Director of DSI Foods Ltd, I have built a brand-new state of the art facility in Heathrow London capable of producing Halal airline and retail quality meal solutions. After joining DSI Foods I managed to turn the break-even balance sheet to over a million pounds profit in the first 12 months. This then triggered the board to invest over £7 million in a new unit which has also been finished in such fine detail that Sainsbury’s (Taste The Difference – Top Tier meals) have been launched on day 1 of opening the new facility. I have also managed to secure new blue-chip company contracts – British Airway and Virgin Atlantic which has now been ongoing for a year and a half. The present customer portfolio also include Harrods, Qantas, Virgin Trains, Air India. Previously as Operations Manager/Executive Chef in a company owned by Lord Noon with an annual turnover over £300 million employing over 1,000 staff, my role was to interface between the wide range of senior retail customers and various dedicated production units ensuring the smooth running of all technical aspects throughout production. My key customers being: – Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Somerfield, Morrisons. Attaining ‘Major Multiple’ approval from all customers and achieving BRC approval for all sites Grade ‘A’ level in an ever-changing market. Including the setting and managing of all financial and budgetary requirements for my site teams and presenting the annual Business Plan to our Major Customers to ensure that we exceeded customer expectations. EMPLOYMENT HISTORY August 2016 to present: Deputy Managing Director DSI Foods Ltd – London. Responsible for 2 sites As above. August 2014 to August 2016: Executive Chef Emirates Flight Catering (Food Point) Dubai. My role included production of 200,000 meals per day and managing a team of 550 staff on a 7 day/2 shift rota. Food Point is one of the three most advanced frozen entrée manufacturing production sites in the world. October 2011 – August 2014 – Culinary Project Manager, Singapore Airlines – Singapore. Part of the senior culinary development team for creating menus for Institutional & Hospital Catering, MoD & Retail. Implementing SOP and recipe standardization for the Main Kitchen producing 8000-10,000 ready to eat meals/ day. A world first – Improving efficiencies of retort ambient ready to eat meal project for low cost airlines like Scoot, Jet Star & Tiger Airways. SATS is the first in the world to supply ambient protein-based meals in aviation catering. – Keep abreast of new developments in different cuisines and work closely with chefs in overseas business units to develop innovative and cost-effective new food menus; (working on projects in India, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong & Bangkok). Streamlining and harmonizing production processes and standards across all business units. Review and evaluating food production activities across all business units and recommend specific areas, type of food production, technology and infrastructure to be developed, with the view of improving food quality, safety and cost; Develop food products/menu solutions network to support key customers at regional levels, Conduct kitchen audits to ensure the business units are in compliance with the Group food safety policies, standards and best practices; Identify and develop culinary training needs and training plans for kitchen staff in overseas business units – Review feedback from key airline customers on food quality so as to identify areas of improvement across business units handling the airline customers, Manage feasibility studies for catering investment prospects, including operational due diligence, assessing potential synergies and developing post-investment integration plans. June 2008 – October 201