Transguard Group has officially marked the opening of its catering company, Taste of Home.
The newest division of the Group was established in 2019 to fulfill a need – to provide site-based employees with meals at an affordable price. In order to offer a true “taste of home,” the catering company sought out chefs from the very regions for which they cook: North and South India, Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa, the Philippines and Europe.
The company currently has the capacity to produce over 80,000 meals every day out of its 3,500 m2 purpose-built facility in Dubai Investment Park.
Dr. Abdulla Al Hashimi, CEO, Transguard Group says: “Food is not only central to sustenance, but it also brings families, people and communities together. We have identified a strong need in the market, especially among site-based expat employees, who want nutritious, good quality and affordable meals that are redolent of the taste and aromas of their cuisine back home. Taste of Home will cater to this hard-working segment that built Dubai and the UAE, and I’m confident we will soon become their popular choice.”
“Taste of Home was inspired by our very own employees,” says Greg Ward, managing director, Transguard Group. “Our people are our strength, and our approach to ensuring a customer-centric culture is heavily dependent on a happy and engaged workforce; founding Taste of Home therefore seemed like a natural progression for the business, not just in terms of meeting the needs of our own employees, but as an overall division developed to provide end-to-end business solutions.”
Led by an experienced Western and Asian food management team, Taste of Home’s dedicated chefs grew up eating the food they now cook for others, ensuring an element of authenticity and distinction to the company’s offering.
The business and its centre of operations are honed by a Lean Six Sigma-informed process. At every step of its operations, Taste of Home further complies to an environmental commitment.
The Taste of Home HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point)-approved facility in DIP features four dedicated cold stores for vegetables, poultry, meat and fish, and four allocated preparation areas for each.
There are also designated nationality kitchens, all run by state-of-the-art Saffron Catering Management Software, which includes traffic light nutritional information, calorie scores and allergen data, for nutritionally balanced recipes and portion sizes.
Other than dedicated storage and preparation areas, Taste of Home staff adhere to controlled hygiene processes prior to entering the food handling area of the facility. Additionally, meals are carefully transported to sites and accommodations in temperature-controlled reefer trucks, with real time temperature monitoring and trackers that increase efficiency.
Taste of Home has already undertaken a selection of event catering projects, and currently have catering contracts for site-based employees within the aviation, construction, hospitality and retail sectors. The company boasts uniquely tailored workforce catering solutions through customisable menus and bespoke catering packages for events of all sizes.
Furthermore, Taste of Home has created a line of traditional and ethnic snack foods for retail sale currently successfully piloted at Transguard’s dedicated, in-accommodation convenience store, T-Mart.
