Sumit Malik is a passionate culinarian who has built his career supporting & inspiring food manufacturers product and packaging development through to manufacturing strategy, waste reduction and sustainability. Whether it’s crafting new culinary concepts, optimizing manufacturing processes, or leveraging cutting-edge market research, he has crafted product solutions that helped businesses in the UK & the Middle East stay ahead in the ever-evolving food landscape. As all great recipes start in the kitchen not the office, Sumit trained as a Chef at Oberoi Center of Learning & Development & furthered his education with a Strategy MBA & True Lean training from Toyota/University of Kentucky. This skillset has been the foundation on which a successful career in the manufacturing of chilled & uber-fresh meal solutions was built. His drive and passion for Real Food has taken him on a journey spanning companies such as Noon, Kerry & Pilgrims (JBS) and Al Hatab. This forward thinking, dynamic pragmatist has a natural instinct for the “next big thing”. His experience in long and short-term product portfolio development which aligns with consumer and customer needs, as well as being commercially profitable, has served him well in managing large multi-disciplinary teams in numerous categories. Creating award winning ranges using only store cupboard ingredients for the likes of M&S, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose… & D2C and B2B for QSR’s in UK & further afield. His current role in Al Hatab sees him establishing the groups R&D function across the stores & the three state of the art manufacturing sites in Saudi Arabia ranging from bakery, ready meals to juices & marinated meats and every fresh category in between.