Ken Dunkley, Principal
Ken is a food industry executive with over 30 years of experience in product development, food manufacturing, restaurant marketing, and co-branding. A native of California, Ken is a Food Science and Microbiology graduate of the University of California, Davis. Throughout his food industry career Ken has focused on developing food products and retail concepts to address consumer demand for convenient, ready-to-eat foods, and healthy foods. A key strength is his ability to identify product and marketing opportunities for restaurants, convenience stores and gasoline retailers, and to create profitable programs to capitalize on consumer needs and expectations for quick, high-quality, good-value prepared food.
Ken began his food industry career by starting and operating a wholesale/retail baking company in Santa Barbara, California, in 1971. His company produced and distributed a complete line of wholegrain bakery products to grocery stores, restaurants, and contract food service accounts. Among his noteworthy product innovations were wholewheat Santa Barbara Sourdough and Pritikin Bread. During this time Ken developed a keen interest in healthy food trends.
In the early 1980's Ken joined The Good Earth Restaurants where he managed menu development, quality assurance, and bakery operations. This gave Ken first-hand experience with restaurant operations - from procurement, to preparation, to customer service.
In 1983 Ken joined Jack in the Box in San Diego and was responsible for product development at a time when the fast food company successfully repositioned itself to target adult customers. Ken managed Research & Development for 10 years, creating many industry-first new products including the grilled sourdough burger and the fajita pita. He broadened his background by moving into Product Marketing, and later into Restaurant Development where he was responsible for co-branding. In this position he created Quick Stuff, the company's proprietary convenience store concept, and developed over 35 new Jack in the Box/Quick Stuff/branded-gasoline locations owned and operated by Jack in the Box Inc. [www.jackinthebox.com/aboutourco/quickstuff]. He also led the development of 44 co-tenant restaurants partnered with c-store/gasoline retailers. During Ken's 22 years at Jack in the Box his executive responsibilities involved managing strategic programs in product development, marketing, and co-brand development which created significant profit growth and expansion for the company.
In 2005 Ken started Quick Food Consulting to help convenience store and restaurant companies create or fine-tune their prepared food and co-branding programs. Ken's background in both the restaurant and convenience store industries gives him a unique perspective, and the ability to identify opportunities and create solutions to improve customer convenience and increase profit.
QFC offers collaborative expertise in operations, training, site evaluation, real estate, mergers, and acquisitions to complement your strategic development needs.
Quick Food Consulting 858-354-3927
