About us

 

Expertise That Makes a Difference

KD Catering Consultancy is led by Karen Dunford, a catering and hospitality professional with more than 25 years’ industry experience.

Karen’s career has taken her across a wide range of environments, including universities, independent and state schools, catering businesses and healthcare settings. This breadth of experience has given her a strong practical understanding of food safety, health and safety, compliance and the realities of running successful catering operations.

But consultancy is about more than knowing the regulations. It’s about understanding how they work in the real world.

Karen combines her hands-on industry experience with a genuine passion for helping people and businesses improve. Whether you need an independent view of your operation, support with compliance, or practical advice to improve performance, KD Catering Consultancy provides clear, tailored advice that works for your business.

What We Do

We help catering and hospitality businesses strengthen their operations, improve compliance and work more effectively.

Our services include:

  • Food Safety & Compliance – helping you understand and meet current food safety and hygiene legislation.
  • Health & Safety – supporting you to maintain robust health and safety standards across your operation.
  • Audits & Compliance Reviews – providing an independent, practical review of your catering operation, identifying areas of risk and opportunities for improvement.
  • Training & Development – helping your teams build the knowledge, confidence and skills they need to maintain high standards.
  • Waste & Sustainability – identifying practical ways to reduce waste, improve processes and support more sustainable catering.
  • Operational & Financial Performance – helping you identify opportunities to improve efficiency, control costs and strengthen overall profitability.

Supporting Catering & Hospitality Businesses Across the South West

Based in Fareham, KD Catering Consultancy works with businesses across Hampshire, Devon & Cornwall.

We believe good consultancy should be practical, straightforward and focused on making a genuine difference. Our aim is not simply to tell you what needs changing — it’s to work alongside you to understand your operation, identify the opportunities and help you put meaningful improvements into practice.

Whether you’re looking to strengthen compliance, improve your systems, reduce waste, develop your team or improve your bottom line, we bring a fresh perspective, practical experience and honest advice to every engagement.

A Note from the Founder

I’m Karen Dunford, founder of KD Catering Consultancy.

With more than 25 years of experience across the catering and hospitality industry, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a wide range of environments — from schools and universities to healthcare, contract catering and independent businesses.

Over the years, I’ve seen first-hand the challenges that catering businesses face, as well as the difference that good systems, strong compliance and the right support can make. For me, successful catering isn’t just about meeting standards — it’s about creating operations that work well for your people, your customers and your business.

I created KD Catering Consultancy to share that experience and provide practical, honest advice that businesses can genuinely use. My approach is simple: understand your operation, identify what could work better, and help you make positive, lasting improvements.

I’m passionate about supporting people within our industry and helping businesses become safer, more efficient and more successful.

I look forward to getting to know your business and seeing how I can help you move forward.

Karen Dunford
Founder, KD Catering Consultancy