Chris Dusch
Burlington,WY
Summary
Industry professional with 10 years of experience. A career that started with cleaning a processing room part time, second shift to managing a butcher shop that sells the highest quality proteins and supplies restaurants with the same level of quality.
Overview
1
1
Certification
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Head Butcher (Manager)
Sweeney Rest. Group, LLC
2023.09 - Current
- Ensured inventory availability by consistently ordering products from multiple vendors on a daily and weekly basis.
- Working with local farms, major broadliners, and importers to provide high quality proteins.
- Maintaining a par to keep inventory levels maintained, ensuring no over ordering and no under ordering. As well as, par levels for proteins produced for the restaurant.
- Maintaining a close relationship with executive chefs to cross utilize proteins and other products both sold at the butcher shop and used for the menu at the restaurant.
- Training employees how to handle high quality proteins and providing the information needed to sell the product as well.
- Training high performing new employees on how to check proteins for quality, how to process, and how to package.
- Educating staff both at butcher shop and the restaurant on the different proteins. Making selling points, costing, and the story behind the product.
- Developing new value added products to profit off of what would be waste or under underutilized.
- Worked with some of the highest quality proteins and products in the world. Including A5 Wagyu, imported and domestic wagyu, seasonal seafood, Iberico, etc.
- Worked and developed different ways to process, present, and sell A5 Wagyu.
- Maintaining sanitation of butcher shop, processing area, equipment, and storage space. Comply with local and state regulations. Inspecting and ordering maintenance for equipment. Implement best practices for maintaining a "flowing" storage space.
- Staying up to date with sales trends and changing consumer market, to ensure we are capitalizing on a forever developing consumer market.
Meat Department Manager
Meijer
2015.12 - 2023.09
- Supervised daily operations of meat department, ensuring compliance with safety and quality standards.
- Trained and mentored staff on best practices for meat handling and customer service.
- Implemented inventory management system to optimize stock levels and reduce waste.
- Developed promotional strategies to increase sales and enhance customer engagement.
- Analyzed sales trends to identify opportunities for product assortment improvements.
- Led team in maintaining cleanliness and organization of meat display areas to attract customers.
- Evaluated employee performance, providing feedback to foster professional development and growth.
- Operated saws and slicers to cut meat, using safety protocols and procedures to avoid accidents.
- Maintained a clean and organized work environment, adhering to strict sanitation standards for food handling and safety.
- Reduced waste and shrinkage by closely monitoring product expiration dates and rotating stock accordingly.
- Conducted regular inspections of department equipment, ensuring proper maintenance for optimal performance levels was reached.
- Maintained compliance with all federal, state, and local food safety regulations through diligent record-keeping and regular staff training.
- Increased department efficiency by implementing new inventory management systems and procedures.
- Reviewed inventory levels and placed orders for products and merchandise for restocking purposes.
- Ensured accurate pricing of all meat items by regularly updating price tags and signage as needed.
- Managed budgets for labor costs, inventory control, and ordering supplies while maintaining desired profit margins.
- Balanced staffing needs during peak times such as holidays or special events to ensure adequate coverage without sacrificing customer service quality levels.
- Developed strong relationships with vendors to secure competitive pricing on high-quality products for the department.
Education
High School Diploma -
High School Diploma -
Boone County High School
Florence, KY 2015-05
Skills
- Food safety
- Sanitation procedures
- Recipe development
- Machinery maintenance
- Streamlined workflow efficiency by implementing proper inventory management and storage practices
- Waste reduction
- Product sourcing
- Management
- Training personnel
- Salesmanship
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Customer service
Accomplishments
- Offered an apprenticeship within my first year at Meijer, earned through hard work and attention to details. Achieved meat cutting certification after only four months of training.
- Promoted to manager after six months a full time meat cutter.
- First assigned store was a "problem" store. High shrink, over staffed, far from compliant with sanitation regulations, and 9th out of 10 stores in sales for the market.
- After two years; store was 2nd in shrink, averaged 50 labor hours under par, passed all safety inspections and 5th in sales.
- Due to the accomplishments at the first store, I was transferred to the highest volume store in our market. Maintained first place in all metrics expect shrink due to high theft, unfortunately.
- Found an opportunity with a local high end restaurant / butcher (Third & Main / Primal Butchery) shop working a casual part time job cutting meat for them.
- After a couple months in the restaurant industry I realized that the blending of both the restaurant and butcher shop was a perfect match. Being there now for three years our sales have increased at the restaurant by 30% and the butcher shop over 100%. Projected by the end of this year we will have doubled our sales from the first year I started.
Certification
- Meat Cutting Certification through Meijer
- ServSafe Manager Food Handling Certification
Timeline
Head Butcher (Manager)
Sweeney Rest. Group, LLC
2023.09 - Current
Meat Department Manager
Meijer
2015.12 - 2023.09
High School Diploma -
High School Diploma -
Boone County High School