Production Manager
Vestey Holdings
00:00:06:02 – 00:00:07:02
My name is Simon.
00:00:07:02 – 00:00:11:24
I’m the production manager at the new site at Albion Fine Foods here at Dartford.
00:00:12:01 – 00:00:16:08
Every sort of ingredient that a chef would want to use on a daily basis,
00:00:16:10 – 00:00:17:23
we will supply them here.
00:00:21:03 – 00:00:24:03
For my role as production manager,
00:00:24:03 – 00:00:27:24
we’ve started with a very small department and I’m building that department up now
00:00:28:01 – 00:00:31:19
and I’ve got two new areas which are due to start very soon.
00:00:31:21 – 00:00:35:15
So the reason for the dry prep area
00:00:35:17 – 00:00:39:12
is really to make a chef’s life easier.
00:00:39:14 – 00:00:41:10
Chefs need as much help as they can.
00:00:41:10 – 00:00:43:24
You need the skill level to put the food together
00:00:43:24 – 00:00:45:18
but the ingredients,
00:00:45:18 – 00:00:49:19
if they are made easier for them, that’s the easier part of the job.
00:00:49:21 – 00:00:54:01
We would take a 25 kilo bag of something and break it down into one kilo
00:00:54:01 – 00:00:59:12
bags, purely because a lot of restaurants, hotels, kitchens, establishments
00:00:59:14 – 00:01:04:23
don’t have the room to have 20, 25 kilo bags of different products,
00:01:05:02 – 00:01:08:02
but they do have shelf space for one kilo tubs,
00:01:08:07 – 00:01:11:14
one kilo bags, 500 gram tubs.
00:01:11:19 – 00:01:13:05
So for the wet prep area,
00:01:13:05 – 00:01:17:12
people don’t like to peel onions, they don’t like to grate carrots.
00:01:17:12 – 00:01:20:06
We will be doing all of these jobs for them.
00:01:20:06 – 00:01:23:06
We can produce fresh products every day,
00:01:23:11 – 00:01:28:00
so that the customer will get a fresh ingredient every day,
00:01:28:02 – 00:01:29:23
so we’ve made their job a lot easier.
00:01:34:03 – 00:01:37:15
With food, I’ve been very lucky because I’ve been a chef.
00:01:37:15 – 00:01:41:12
Before I came here, I was a chef for 47 years,
00:01:41:14 – 00:01:43:20
so I understand food and food ingredients.
00:01:43:20 – 00:01:47:04
so that to start with I was in a good place.
00:01:47:06 – 00:01:50:21
I’ve always worked with production managers, so I understand their role.
00:01:50:23 – 00:01:53:23
So coming here, it was quite a nice
00:01:54:01 – 00:01:56:02
role change for me.
00:01:56:02 – 00:01:58:18
I was already ready for the job.
00:02:02:14 – 00:02:05:05
I left school at the age of 16
00:02:05:05 – 00:02:08:13
with the view to working in hotels.
00:02:08:13 – 00:02:12:18
I knew that I needed to work in London
00:02:12:20 – 00:02:15:22
with a view to getting myself a really good career.
00:02:16:02 – 00:02:20:21
I started at the White House Hotel as a trainee chef.
00:02:20:23 – 00:02:23:02
I knew that I had to go to college
00:02:23:02 – 00:02:26:11
and I wanted to go to the best college that I could possibly go to,
00:02:26:11 – 00:02:30:01
which happened to be Westminster Catering College.
00:02:30:01 – 00:02:32:12
So I went there and I was there for four years.
00:02:32:12 – 00:02:35:17
I worked my way up to what would be called a Chef de Partie
00:02:35:17 – 00:02:38:17
which was in charge of a section in the kitchen.
00:02:38:21 – 00:02:42:09
I feel that I’ve been very lucky in my career to do some fantastic things.
00:02:42:15 – 00:02:48:03
I’ve been lucky enough to cook for the Queen and the rest of the royal family
00:02:48:04 – 00:02:51:08
at St James’s Palace in London
00:02:51:08 – 00:02:57:06
and also at their private residence at Horsted Place in Uckfield, West Sussex.
00:02:57:08 – 00:02:59:08
And my job before I came here,
00:02:59:08 – 00:03:03:01
I worked with Raymond Blanc for nearly ten years.
00:03:03:03 – 00:03:07:20
We worked very closely together and I’ve been very lucky to
00:03:07:22 – 00:03:10:20
go and work with him at his restaurant, at Le Manoir
00:03:10:20 – 00:03:15:09
at Brasserie Blanc, go to working with him in Burgundy.
00:03:15:11 – 00:03:19:15
For my last two jobs Albion Fine Foods has been a supplier of ours.
00:03:19:17 – 00:03:23:15
I got talking to somebody who knew that Toby was looking for this new venture here
00:03:23:15 – 00:03:25:01
at Albion Fine Foods.
00:03:25:01 – 00:03:27:05
They were going to be building this site and they were looking
00:03:27:05 – 00:03:29:15
for somebody who would come in and be a production manager.
00:03:33:21 – 00:03:35:05
Always look
00:03:35:05 – 00:03:38:22
to push yourself to move on more in your career,
00:03:38:22 – 00:03:41:03
just progression.
00:03:41:03 – 00:03:42:23
Look for the next role.
00:03:42:23 – 00:03:45:12
You can look at your boss and think, You know what?
00:03:45:12 – 00:03:49:07
with the right experience, I could do that job and work for it.
“I feel that I’ve been very lucky in my career to do some fantastic things.” Simon had a great career as a chef, working for Raymond Blanc and cooking for the royal family. He now heads up production at Albion Fine Foods, a company which supplies restaurants with ingredients.
More information about Production managers and directors in manufacturing
The UK average salary is £29,813
There are 37.5 hours in the average working week
The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male
Future employment
- Liaises with other managers to plan overall production activity and daily manufacturing activity, sets quality standards and estimates timescales and costs;
- Manages production to ensure that orders are completed to an agreed date and conform to customer and other requirements;
- Monitors production and production costs and undertakes or arranges for the preparation of reports and records;
- Oversees supervision of the production line and its staff, ensures targets are met.
Related career stories
Indeed has no listings of this type at the moment
jobs by