Head of Central Kitchen Production & Product Development

Position Summary

The Head of Central Kitchen Production & Product Development is responsible for leading the overall operations of the central kitchen, ensuring efficient production, food safety, quality assurance, and continuous product innovation. The role is accountable for developing new beverage for retail, wholesale, OEM/private label and export markets while driving operational excellence and profitability.

Production Management

• Lead daily operations of the central kitchen and manufacturing facility.
• Ensure production schedules meet retail, wholesale and export demand.
• Optimize manpower, machinery and production capacity.
• Improve productivity, reduce downtime, wastage and production costs.
• Ensure preventive maintenance of equipment.

Product Development & Innovation

• Lead research and development of new beverage products.
• Develop products for retail, wholesale, foodservice, OEM/private label and export.
• Conduct product trials, costing, shelf-life studies and commercialization.

Product Innovation & Commercialisation

• Drive innovation by identifying market trends and customer needs.
• Lead the complete New Product Development (NPD) process from concept, formulation, product trials, pilot production, sensory evaluation and cost analysis through to full commercial production.
• Ensure products are scalable for mass production while maintaining quality, food safety and cost efficiency.
• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Procurement and Operations to launch new products successfully.
• Conduct packaging evaluations and commercial viability assessments.
• Continuously improve existing products through recipe and process optimisation.
• Build an innovation pipeline supporting long-term growth.
• Keep abreast of food technology and consumer trends.

Export Product Development

• Develop export-ready products with improved shelf life.
• Ensure compliance with importing countries' regulations.
• Support OEM/private label projects.

Quality Assurance & Food Safety

• Ensure compliance with SFA, HACCP, ISO 22000, GMP and hygiene standards.
• Establish SOPs and investigate customer complaints.

Process Improvement

• Drive continuous improvement, automation and recipe standardisation.

Cost Management

• Monitor production cost sand improve gross margins.
• Work with Procurement to source quality ingredients competitively.
• Control inventory.

Team Leadership

• Build and lead ahigh-performing production and R&D team.
• Train, coach and appraise staff.
• Promote teamwork, accountability and integrity.

Strategic Planning

• Develop long-term production and innovation strategies.
• Plan capacity and recommend equipment investments

Key Performance Indicators

• Production output, quality consistency, on-time delivery, wastage reduction, manufacturing cost, successful product launches, time-to-market, customer satisfaction, audit compliance and team productivity.