Commencing with Centrica and originally working between the Edinburgh and Uddingston office, I worked closely with the Area Manager at the time to coordinate a £1 million pound expansion of the catering department within the Scottish Gas Uddingston site. Once the build and mobilisation of the department was complete, I was appointed General Manager of the Uddingston contract. Scottish Gas, over the years has gone through a number of changes and with each change has improved the services we provide to customers on site. We currently have a large 40 seat Costa shop, 50 seat lounge and a 140 seat restaurant. I have a team of 15 staff who effectively deliver an outstanding service and maintain a very high level in all areas of work. We maintain a ROSPA GOLD award and have had this award for the past 6 years. The unit also has the Scottish Healthy Living Award and we are now on our fourth year of this award. The unit has an annual turnover of £600k and maintains of 45% gross profit. Centrica as a company is very passionate about healthy eating and this is reflected in the service we offer offer, with a 12 hour, 6 day operation, we cater to all our clients needs. Originally, as one of the pilot sites for the SOURCE we use this in all or daily menus and always sit within the top 5 units in the UK on the monthly SOURCE report.

Responsible for all areas of work associated with the position of Catering Manager. Our core business was predominately conferencing and in addition, we would also cater to the needs of the onsite Audi staff, Audi Café and also visiting clients. With my team, we would cater to all types of conferencing events, from a simple working lunch for 20, to an all day and evening event with 500 delegates. Our client list was extensive with many high profile Glasgow based companies, including BAE Systems, Glasgow Herald, BBC Scotland and with that so was the expectation to deliver a first class service. My reason for leaving this position was due to being 'earmarked' for Scottish Gas Uddingston site expansion.

This was a multi site role over-seeing 2 contracts within a 15 mile distance of each other, the contract comprising of 4 separate buildings and kitchens. Overall responsibility for all areas off work and providing a catered service 24/7 for those on site. Within the year the team surpassed the client's needs and effectively secured a new 3 year contract for Compass. This was a first for Devro who had never awarded a contract any more than 1 year in the past.

Scottish Courage had relocated their main call centre to Livingston and as such my initial role was to plan, organise and implement the full mobilisation of the unit. Effectively working from start to finish in the planning and design of the catering department, coffee lounge area, and hospitality suite, working closely with the architect to ensure the client's needs were being met. As this was a new contract, I recruited a new team of nine staff, developed training plans, daily menus and hospitality service. Once the unit mobilisation was complete the normal process of running the unit was commenced with my team effectively delivering an exceptional level of service and surpassed all financial targets.

With the original role of mobilisation manager, my role within this contract was to organise and oversee the temporary catering offer from a portable kitchen catering for 500 Scottish Water employees and 150-200 builders on site. Once the new building was complete I would plan and complete a full mobilisation of the new unit, including recruitment, menu development, hospitality offer and full systems of work. After completion of the mobilisation and with all systems and team in place I moved onto my next project, a new call centre for Scottish Courage in Livingstone.

The contact had been lost to a competing company and my role was to run the contract until the new catering company took over and organise the hand over. At the same time I was working on a new unit start up for Scottish Water which was a new build office for 500 people.