Divya Ramasami

Entrepreneurial leader with nineteen years of experience in India, China, SEA & the US.

Skilled in product innovation, in-depth knowledge of OEM food products, raw materials and packaging, negotiations, and business relationship development. Excellent communication and analytical skills. 

Bite Me Foods Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, India

Founder & CEO, April 2011 - April 2021

Founded, managed, and successfully exited a multi-city F&B chain 

General Management:

• Built Bite Me, a successful premium vegetarian cupcake chain from the ground up, with 7 bakery outlets across 2 cities. Voted best cupcakes in India by BBC’s Good Food Magazine, 2015. 

• Painted a clear vision, made detailed plans, set priorities, goals, and metrics, and communicated clearly with all stakeholders.
• Actively managed P&L with quarterly and annual budgets ensuring profitable growth. 

• Extensive and continuous focus on team building and talent development within the organization that ensured strong talent retention.

Purchasing: 

• Developed procurement strategies to help identify superior suppliers, processed RFQs, and negotiated price, terms, and MOQs. 

• Maintained excellent business relationships to extract value throughout the supply chain. 

• Designed and maintained strict quality control protocols, periodically engaged with suppliers on process improvements, and sourced new and improved raw materials. 

• Implemented inventory management methods for ease of use, reducing wastage, and avoiding stock-outs or excess stock. 

Operations:

• Introduced, and consistently improved organizational processes, elevating employee participation at all levels: retail, production, and management. 

• Managed new outlet opening, staffing, and operations for 7 bakery outlets in 2 cities.

• Maintained competitive advantage through continuous product innovation, introduced new product categories, and quantitatively evaluated product performance to increase top-line and bottom-line.

• Strategized ways to cross-promote products, and price-bundles for both retail and corporate channels. Collaborated with 3rd party retail channels to increase customer base and product volumes. 

• Created operations management procedures to anticipate and remove bottlenecks to ensure various departments are engaged seamlessly.

• Managed food safety and compliance standards for the kitchen as well as the bakery outlets. • Worked with a third-party food safety specialist team to do periodic audits of raw material storage, food manufacturing, delivery standards, personnel health & hygiene, and equipment maintenance. 

Fox Racing, Morgan Hill, CA, USA

Product Developer, March 2008 - Jul 2010

Product Development and International Sourcing for US$60-75M

• Processed tech-packs and standard requirements of the product line and explained product requirements to suppliers, before requesting quotations. 

• Compared quotations from various suppliers and made multifactorial decisions on the right suppliers for each SKU in the product line. 

• Negotiated material, cost, and delivery lead times. Identified and removed any feature that might disrupt ideal quality, timeline, and costs. 

• Made factory visits to Vietnam and China to improve supplier relationships, quality control methodologies, and analyzed new materials and machinery in the market that could enhance the company’s existing product line. 

• Attended product and packaging trade fairs to identify potential suppliers and develop relationships with other peer companies and industry stalwarts.  

• Led the product compliance part of the entire product line, including lab tests of each component of the finished product, and issued compliance certificates. 

Trimaco, LLC, Durham, NC, USA

International Sourcing Manager, April 2005 – October 2006

Comprehensive procurement role managing a US$15M budget

• Saved $1 Million (1.2% of revenue) annually by negotiating better contracts and identifying superior manufacturers.

• Consistently achieved a 98% QC acceptance rate (3% above the industry average).

• Increased on-time delivery of shipments from 70 to 82%.

• Executed procurement activities such as supplier identification, RFQ, quote analysis, supplier selection, negotiation, and contract development.

• Managed back-end supply chain roles such as issuing P.O.s, tracking production and shipment, and coordinating with factory receiving.

• Strengthened business relationships and operations through on-site visits to factories in South Asian countries.

Roverco Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, India

Sample Production Coordinator, July 1999 – May 2003

Supervised a 29-member sample production team

• Managed production and delivery of samples for the company’s major international buyers such as Levi Strauss, Next (UK), French Connection UK, and Abercrombie & Fitch.

• Shortened the Design-Approval feedback cycle from 4-weeks to 2-weeks, by innovative sample creation techniques.

• Improved the sample approval rate for U.S. and European clients by 25%.

The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas, USA
MBA: Marketing Management, December 2004

National Institute of Fashion Technology, Chennai, India

Diploma in Fashion Design, May 1999