Six roles between the cold room and the store

Mandate

Run every outlet, kitchen and lorry in the group to a common standard, protect food safety across three formats and lift operating margin without hollowing out the workforce.

Outcomes

• Repaid RM2.06 million in recruitment fees to 412 migrant workers; their attrition fell from 34 per cent to 11 per cent.
• Opened the S$19 million Senoko chilled kitchen in January 2025; transit discards fell from S$640,000 to S$90,000 a year.
• Moved delivery contribution from minus 1.8 per cent of delivery sales in 2022 to 8.6 per cent in 2024.
• Reset the Thai franchise network; audit pass rate rose from 71 to 96 per cent of outlets.
• Cut bakery waste in 40 trial outlets from 9.4 to 6.1 per cent of production value.

Decisions in context

Joanne Seow asked me to become chief operating officer in April 2019, after I had spent four and a half years building Rumbia's production and supply chain. The role brought outlets, food halls, kitchens, logistics, procurement, facilities and food safety under one person for the first time. Within a year the pandemic closed our food halls for weeks, shut the border with Malaysia and confined our migrant workers to crowded hostels, and much of my early tenure was spent keeping bakeries supplied while learning what our operating model had been hiding. The recruitment-fee repayment, the Senoko kitchen, the delivery reset and the Thai franchise reset all followed from that period. I lead about 6,900 people through nine direct reports, present to the board each quarter and report on food safety and operational risk to the Audit and Risk Committee. Revenue has grown from S$486 million in 2019 to S$642 million in 2025.

Reason for the move

Current role. Not seeking an executive move; considering one independent directorship with the Rumbia board's consent.

Mandate

Replace three ageing kitchens with one modern facility and give the group a supply chain able to support growth in Malaysia.

Outcomes

• Opened the Senai central kitchen in September 2016 within its RM186 million budget.
• Cut unit production costs by 19 per cent and exited two Singapore kitchen leases.
• Obtained halal certification for Senai within its first year of operation.
• Built a fleet of 58 refrigerated lorries with continuous temperature logging.

Decisions in context

Rumbia hired me to fix production. In 2014 the group made its products in three kitchens: two cramped Singapore sites on short leases and an older plant in Shah Alam. Quality varied between them, and none had room for the Malaysian growth the board wanted. I designed a single central kitchen at Senai in Johor, chose the site for its access to both border crossings and to Malaysian outlets, and opened it in September 2016 within a RM186 million budget. Unit production costs fell 19 per cent, we left the Singapore leases and the kitchen was halal-certified within its first year. I also built our refrigerated fleet and the temperature-logging system that every lorry still carries. The weakness in the design, which I did not see then, was that it routed every chilled product for Singapore through one overnight border crossing. That became my problem to solve seven years later.

Reason for the move

Promoted to chief operating officer.

Mandate

Make the franchised network profitable for franchisees as well as the franchisor, and introduce a chilled ready-to-eat range.

Outcomes

• Raised the franchise renewal rate from 78 to 91 per cent.
• Reduced shrink from 2.6 to 1.7 per cent of sales.
• Launched a chilled ready-to-eat range in 300 stores with a three-day shelf life.
• Cut the number of franchisees in arrears on supplier payments by more than half.

Decisions in context

Simpang Mart ran 410 convenience stores across Peninsular Malaysia, 270 of them owned by franchisees. When I arrived, about a fifth of franchisees were behind on their payments to us, and renewal rates were falling. I spent my first months in stores, mostly at night, and found that many decisions taken in Petaling Jaya, such as longer opening hours, wider ranges and more frequent promotions, raised the franchisor's revenue while squeezing the franchisee's cash. We rebuilt the franchise support model around each store's monthly cash flow, cut low-selling lines and changed delivery days to reduce stockholding. We also launched a chilled ready-to-eat range with a three-day shelf life, which taught me how unforgiving a short shelf life is in a hot country. Franchise renewals rose from 78 to 91 per cent and shrink fell from 2.6 to 1.7 per cent of sales.

Reason for the move

Recruited to build a food group's central kitchen and supply chain in Singapore, closer to my ageing parents.

Mandate

Bring the plant to the food-safety standard export customers required and raise output without a second site.

Outcomes

• Built the plant's hazard-analysis and critical-control-point system and passed an export customer's re-audit in 2007.
• Raised output by 38 per cent within the existing building.
• Reduced product rejected at final inspection from 4.2 to 1.6 per cent.
• Managed a single-batch labelling recall in 2008 within 36 hours.

Decisions in context

Kayu Manis was a family-owned frozen-food maker in Woodlands, selling dumplings, buns and dim sum to Singapore supermarkets, caterers and two export markets. I joined as production manager and became plant manager in 2008. In my first year an export customer's audit failed us on our hazard controls, and I rebuilt the system from the hazard analysis upwards, with the plant's own supervisors writing the procedures. We passed the re-audit in 2007. Output rose 38 per cent within the same building through better line balancing and a second freezing tunnel. In 2008 a supplier changed a sauce recipe without telling us, a label went out wrong on one batch, and I learnt how a recall is run: who decides, who is told, and how quickly. I completed my part-time master's degree here, in the evenings. I left to run a network of stores rather than one plant.

Reason for the move

Wanted to run a retail network rather than a single plant.

Mandate

Improve milling efficiency and run a production shift safely.

Outcomes

• Raised flour extraction by 1.2 percentage points through roller and sifter changes.
• Reduced energy use per tonne by 9 per cent.
• Led the mill's dust-control improvements after a review of ignition risks.

Decisions in context

I joined Teraju Flour Mills in Jurong as a process engineer because I wanted to run machinery, not install it and leave. A flour mill rewards small improvements: a change to roller settings or sifter screens can add a fraction of a percentage point to extraction, and on a mill's volume that is real money. Over two years we raised extraction by 1.2 percentage points and cut energy per tonne by 9 per cent. I also led a review of dust control after a near-miss in a conveying line, because flour dust in the wrong concentration can ignite, and the changes we made became standard across the mill. In 2004 I became a shift production manager, leading about 45 people on rotating shifts, many on work permits from across the region. They taught me more about the equipment than my degree had. I left to work closer to finished food.

Reason for the move

Wanted to work closer to finished food and the people who buy it.

Mandate

Design and commission cold rooms and refrigeration systems for supermarkets and central kitchens.

Outcomes

• Designed and commissioned 22 cold rooms and blast freezers.
• Rewrote the firm's condenser-sizing practice after a rooftop failure in 2000.
• Commissioned the firm's first central-kitchen project in Johor.

Decisions in context

My first job after university was designing and commissioning cold rooms and blast freezers for supermarkets and central kitchens. I worked on 22 installations in under three years, mostly in Singapore and two in Johor. The project that shaped me went wrong. In 2000 a freezer room I had commissioned failed on a Sunday because its condensing unit, sized for a 32°C ambient temperature, sat in a rooftop corner where the air reached more than 40°C. The client lost its frozen stock and the firm paid for new equipment. Afterwards I rewrote our condenser-sizing practice to require a site measurement of the actual location, not the weather bureau's average. I also learnt how customers use the rooms we build: doors propped open, stock piled against evaporators, cleaning done with hoses. I left because I wanted to run the operation rather than equip it.

Reason for the move

Wanted to operate food production rather than design equipment for others.