Interim Operations Consultant, Keelings / IVG White Ltd 2014 – 2015 IVG White is the biggest subsidiary of Keeling’s group with a turnover of £300m, supplying top fruit, stone fruit and salad’s to the UK major multiple sector with approximately 1000 SKU’s across 3 major customers with 7 different pack formats. Under took business case proposal and initiated a change management process that allowed the business to reach its full potential for efficiency and growth. Achievements and career highlights: • Manage the installation and process of 3 new packing lines in a confined space redesigning process flow and factory lay-out which increased efficiency and plant capacity by 20%. • Assess existing operational structure and practices recognizing present strengths and weaknesses. Design business case proposal which allows the business to achieve industry standard costs and efficiencies that resulted in a reduction in individual pack variable cost from an average 8.5p to 5.9p. • Present business case proposal to the directors of the business, operational team managers and the wider business for their buy- in and support. • Identify specific areas for improvement as identified by the business case proposal, using continuous improvement techniques set up project improvement management teams with clear targets, parameters, and timescales. Identifying key roles and individuals for each project and lead each project management team. • Implement restructure clearly defining role responsibilities and reporting lines and removing 1 tier of management in the process. • Construct daily / weekly structured management communications meetings which improved the quality and timeliness of information flows. • Formally assess skill levels across 3 main functions for positions from line leaders to departmental managers, implement appropriate training modules by individual which resulted in an up skilled work force.

Interim Project Manager, WM Morrisons / Global Pacific Produce Ltd 2013 - 2014 Project manage £8m capex project of an existing banana ripening and packing facility that has been moth balled for 2 years with 840 pallet 21 ripening chambers including managing the £2.7m construction of an additional 1008 pallet 21 chamber ripening unit. Design and implement all processes to turn the facility into a fully operational production unit on a very tight time scale and within budget. Achievements and career highlights: • Evaluate all site services and equipment assessing its present condition then draw up a schedule of works to bring the facility up to a standard that meets legal, health and safety standards, and operational requirements prior to production. • Create tender documents for contractor’s to quote against, evaluate quotes for works against tender documents. Manage main contractor and additional subcontractors ensuring they are fulfilling works against specification on time and within budget. • Map out the flow process and evaluate all resources required to enable the factory to work at its optimal capacity. • Identify key senior positions and how these personnel will interact to build a solid, capable and efficient team. • Managed the design and implementation of all legal requirements such as risk assessments, HACCP, COSHH, traceability and health and safety policy. • Update the JV and all other stake holders using the 7 Prince2 principles to share progress of the project against a very demanding time schedule enabling us to manage the project as a whole. • Working with stake holders monitoring spend against budget (£8m) making sure all works are completed on time and within budget. • Manage the implementation of ERP system ‘Rubicon’

Head of Procurement, Hilton Meats Retail PLC 2013 - 2013 The UK division of Hilton Food Group, a £1 billion turnover company supplying fresh meat to international multiple retailers. With Tesco as a primary customer for beef and lamb, the business supplied £200 million of product per year across approximately 100 SKU’s. Advised the directors on appropriate strategies for an internal restructure of the division, which was part of a wider group restructure across procurement, operations and sales functions. Achievements and career highlights: • Advised on departmental restructure that established quicker and more accurate communications between both senior managers and their direct reports. • Implemented purchasing strategy that moved away from the “kill” model which allowed the business to purchase individual cuts of meat instead of the whole carcass. • Liaised with Tesco Global Food Sourcing to establish a best practice way of working that would benefit both Tesco and our own business. • Rationalised stock losses previously running with a value of £350K • Working with the technical department to create a procedure for testing inbound raw meat products to ensure no cross-contamination with meat from other species.

Operations Manager, Co-operative Group 2011 - 2013 Responsible for the manufacturing activities in the annual production of 2 million cases of branded chilled fresh products across 27 SKU’s produced on eight production lines. The role carries full site responsibility with a budget spend of £11 million, management of a unionised workforce through 5 direct reports. Achievements and career highlights: • Reorganised working practices which enabled a £300k annual saving. • Achieved a further 18% saving in labour costs by challenging existing process flow and identifying opportunities for improvements using business improvement technologies. • Developed a production forecast model and schedule which delivered an 80% saving in overtime. • Identified areas of the business that were not legally compliant then formulated and implemented a strategy that introduced HACCP, COSHH, and Health and Safety through risk assessment to comply with current legislation. • Pioneered and launched 2 new product lines that both satisfied price point criteria and introduced further competition within the range and had the fastest growth of any product within its category. • Initiated working collaboratively with another group site that optimised efficiencies in order fulfilment process.

Interim Consultant, Vegpro Ltd 2011 – 2011 Business start up, in its second year of operation, already the 2nd largest UK ingredient manufacturer in its category. Customers included many of the leading UK food manufacturers; Birds Eye, McCain, Bakkavor, Daniells Foods, Northern Foods with end products found in major retailers and food businesses including Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, McDonalds and The New Covent Garden Soup Company. Investigated operational issues, advised the board on solutions, and implemented process and procedure improvements. Identified and resolved supply chain issues. Achievements and career highlights: • Designed a production data capture system enabling the analysis of all costs that where benchmarked against industry standards. • Introduced standard operating procedures for technical, production and logistic processes allowing for accurate measurement and effective quality and cost control. • Established key performance indicators to measure efficiencies on daily and weekly basis. • Assembled capital equipment to construct a specialist onion-ring production line that reduced labour costs by 53% and enabled material that had previously been waste into a saleable product. • Devised and implemented staff training. • Implemented production forecast and planning.

General Manager R & RW Bartlett 2008 – 2010 A family owned £12m turnover partnership consisting of three enterprises, growing agricultural fresh produce, packing and processing operation and marketing function. The customer facing role incorporated heading up the sales and marketing function, increasing operational efficiencies and managing the technical team. Achievements and career highlights: • Modernised pre-packing process and pack format which resulted in a 50% reduction in the variable cost of packing. • Increased profitable sales by 20% introducing new products to existing and new customers including opening export markets. • Negotiated profitable sole supply status with major customer by devising a strategy for importing product for a two month period when there was no UK crop available. • Re-organised workforce into a shift pattern that reduced total labour cost by 5%. • Redesigned policies, procedural documentation and managed appropriate training for BRC standard version 5 achieving grade A.

Interim Consultant, UK Fuel Farms 2007 – 2007 Reporting directly to the directors on the viability of expanding their 1 year old bio-fuel business. As part of a diverse group of businesses including international agricultural growing operations, agronomical service providers, land agency and meat marketing operations. Achievements and career highlights: • Investigated UK and European bio-fuel market with particular focus on the production and marketing of bio-diesel including all aspects of duty, taxation and Government incentive schemes. • Researched the bio-diesel production process and criteria to reach standard EN14214. • Identified sources of raw material for bio-diesel production. • Devised and presented with recommendations and relevant data a strategy for bio-diesel production and marketing with sustainable renewable raw material supply.

Director, Rouvel Ltd 2002 – 2006 Successfully launched and established Rouvel as a fresh produce contract packing and trading company. Contract packing for ASDA, Morrison’s, Musgrave, Aldi, Lidl and Kwiksave as well as trading product to third party packers for Tesco, Morrison and Musgrave. Achievements and career highlights: • Managed key accounts in the UK and Ireland. • Contact packed onions for six Morrison’s RDC’s. • Responsible for sourcing product globally from the UK, Europe, South Africa, North Americas, Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand. • Conducted market research, made contact with suppliers from Eastern Europe and packed product at source to achieve lowest cost producer status. • Diversified the business from packing one product group on six production lines to packing 4 different product groups utilising existing resources. • Grew the turnover of the business to £3.7m in four years.

Earlier Career History Project Manager: Empire World Trade Worked with Tesco head office staff, Identified new business opportunities and achieved cost savings across 7 different business units; International supply, Logistics, Internet sales, Club card, Currency and Finance, Range and promotional activity. Procurement Manager: Lingarden Responsible for the procurement strategy for agricultural raw material to fill orders for two major accounts, Tesco and Co-operative Group. Programmed and organised imports from around the world to fill a 3 month sales period including price negotiation, shipping complying with, and storage. Complying with present INCO terms and import duty calculation. Engineered strategy to supply Irish grown produce into Tesco stores in Ireland. Advised on the design and construction of a fresh produce packing facility Ireland. Procurement Manager: QV Foods Rationalised UK supply base from 700 to 300 growers. Managed contract and spot purchase of free-buy product including pricing and quality specification for imported product from Spain, Cyprus and Greece.

Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, Agriculture