The dbc Board

Tarsem Dhaliwal

Chairman

Upon leaving college, Tarsem joined Iceland Foods, qualifiying as an accountant whilst working with the company.

Tarsem is well known to most within the financial sector, he has worked for Iceland for over 20 years, rejoining the business in 2004, following the demise of the Big Food Group, taking the role of Finance Director and a member of the management shareholding team. His time back with Iceland has helped them to achieve a remarkable turnaround with continuous years of double-digit like-for-like sales growth.

He was appointed as the Chairman of dbc foodservice in August 2007, prior to the subsequent purchase of dbc in 2009 by WPD Limited (WPD), a company jointly owned by Malcolm Walker, Andrew Pritchard and Tarsem himself. At that point he commented:

"We believe that we can add value to dbc by providing advice, direction and support to its management team. We shall also be looking for opportunities to exploit our industry knowledge, experience and buying power to extend dbc's capabilities and improve its performance for the benefit of all stakeholders in the company."

He is also a Director on the Board of a number of other private food and property companies.

Outside business, his greatest interests are his wife, children and Manchester United, not necessarily in that order!

Chris Horne

Managing Director

Chris is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He trained in the City and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1978. After working in the accountancy profession he joined Taylor Woodrow in the construction industry.

In 1984 he joined Del Monte where he held a number of corporate roles and was a key member of the Del Monte Management Buyout Team that acquired the business from KKR. 

After a trade sale was achieved, Chris was headhunted to dbc foodservice in 1995 as Finance Director. When dbc was acquired by Woodwards in September 2006 Chris was appointed to the Woodward Group Holdings Board and given full responsibility for the management of the dbc business. When the businesses were separated in April 2007, Chris was appointed Managing Director of dbc foodservice.

Chris led the negotiations and the successful tender process for the securing of the MOD contract in 2006. The contract in its first year delivered turnover of £88m and EBIT of £3m. 

Chris is married with three grown-up children and is a keen sportsman having represented Middlesex at rugby in his younger days.

Jeremy Fitton

Contract Distribution & Cost Sector Sales Director

Jeremy left school at 18 and joined Sainsbury's as a Trainee Manager, believing his experience working as a student for Safeway's during his A-Levels gave him a solid understanding of life within food retail.

Working in many challenging Central London supermarkets, he got his first Store Manager post in West Ealing. After further management positions he then took a Head Office role heading up Sainsbury's Retail Security division.

After several years, Jeremy joined Iceland Foods, working for the Iceland board, he spent time within the non-food appliances division on profit improvement and then went on to be seconded to some of Iceland's sister companies handling business transformation projects.

In 2008, he took over as Managing Director of The Big Fish Company, where he remained before selling the business to Seafood Holdings and joining the board at dbc foodservice. He is now accountable for the MoD, Healthcare and Education, Purchasing Groups, Contract Caterers and Contract Distribution. He is also the Chairman of the Trustees to dbc's pension scheme.

Jeremy lives in Cheshire, is married to Kerrie and has two teenage children; Alexandra, a budding television presenter and Ben, an enthusiastic footballer and gamer. For pleasure he manages a local under 15's football team.

Rob McFarlane

Commercial Director, Meats

Rob began his career in the foodservice industry by completing a three year Catering Course at Merton College, Wimbledon.

His initial appointments saw him working for John Stone through many of his businesses - beginning with Russell Meats in London, then moving on to E. Russell's in Jersey for three years before returning to the UK to help run Donald Russell in Inverurie, Aberdeen, specialising in high-end hotel and restaurant groups.

Following his extensive time with the Russell Group of Companies Rob joined Brakes Foodservice business in 2001 where he helped to set up Prime Meats, the Meat and Poultry Business, which he helped to take from £7m at the beginning of his time to an impressive £83m at the point of his departure, some 10 years later.

It was then that he joined dbc foodservice with the sole challenge to develop the Meat in Trading business and help deliver a food service solution that is truly world class.

He lives in Central London and has turned eating into a career. He enjoys cooking although many of his friends appreciate the drinks selection over the experimental food! He is a keen athlete and very much enjoys sailing and shooting, although not at the same time!

Nick O’Carroll

Operations Director

Nick has over 30 years experience of Logistics and Supply Chain activities.

He began his career in foodservice as a multi-drop delivery driver and continued his career through depot and regional leadership roles in frozen & multi-temperature centres throughout the UK and Ireland.

Nick joined dbc foodservice in July 2007 as Operations Controller and within 12 months was promoted to Board Director, part of the team which led to the resurgence of dbc as a significant player in the UK foodservice market place.

Tony Rowlands

Sales Director

Tony began his food career graduating from Catering College with a HND in Hospitality & Leisure and also a Diploma in Hotel & Catering.

His first role within the food industry was as a chef in the Royal Navy. Following this he moved into management throughout the restaurant, bar and foodservice industry, working various positions within the catering & leisure industry and becoming a Food Production Manager at the age of just 27. He developed his on-trade knowledge while working, most notably with Mitchell’s & Butlers, and then progressing to Greene King within their branded estate, where he was responsible for overseeing a number of food concepts in his role as Food Development Manager.

He then joined Roberts as Sales Director selling desserts and Yorkshire puddings. From here Tony progressed to the Individual Restaurant Company (IRC) joining as Operations Director and leaving after growing the Piccolino and Bar & Grill brands from 4 to 33 sites. After more than five years Tony moved back into manufacturing and most recently was Managing Director of foodservice for Loxtonfoodco.

Finally in February 2011 Tony joined dbc as Sales Director where he is responsible for driving an aggressive sales growth plan into dbc's profit sector.

Leo Weston

Finance Director

For the initial period of Leo's career he was training in London and working for organisations largely within the commercial property industry.

Moving back to the North West, Leo worked for a specialist foodservice company before joining a gluten-free food manufacturer, Nutrition Point, in 2000. As Finance and Commercial Director, Leo helped guide the Company through successive years of double-digit growth, increasing turnover twenty-fold over a seven year period and building one of the strongest retail brands in the sector. Nutrition Point doubled turnover again through the acquisition of a major competing brand in the healthcare sector.

Since leaving Nutrition Point, Leo moved back into the foodservice industry. Initially Leo held the role of Finance Director of The Big Fish Group, where he oversaw the sale of H&S Openshaw to Seafood Holdings, before moving across to dbc foodservice.

Leo lives in Cheshire with his partner Jo with their new baby daughter.

John Berry

Company Secretary

Awaiting Biography