To mark International Women’s Day, Elit Rowland spotlights the women making an impact at JJ Foodservice
Behind every successful foodservice operation is a huge amount of work that most people never see. At JJ Foodservice, that work is carried out by teams across purchasing, transport, contracts, culture, customer service and more.
Here, we highlight just some of the women who play a vital role in delivering the quality, reliability, and service that thousands of restaurants, caterers, schools and homes depend on every day. Their stories show not only the effort involved in keeping a national wholesaler running, but also the wide range of career paths available within foodservice wholesale.
Product leadership: Gulseda Gedik, category manager
Gedik has played a key role in reshaping JJ Foodservice’s chips category with the launch of JJ Gourmet Extra Crunchy Chips – a product designed for consistent performance across fryers, ovens and air fryers. Since launching in January 2025, Extra Crunchy has shown strong, sustained momentum.
Over the past six months, weekly sales value has grown by around 85%, with demand continuing to build. Gedik’s ability to translate customer needs into reliable, high-performing products has strengthened the potato category and set a clear benchmark for product development.
Read more: JJ Foodservice to open Ipswich and Nottingham depots this year
Sustainable innovation: Suna Durakoglu, category manager
Durakoglu leads JJ’s sustainability-focused packaging development. From kraft containers to bagasse clamshells, she has introduced eco-friendly solutions that perform under pressure and help customers transition away from plastic. She also revitalised the ripple-cup category with new colours, giving operators an easy way to improve branding and presentation.
Durakoglu identifies market gaps and turns them into commercially successful, sustainable products. She challenges convention, delivers practical innovation for real kitchens and is helping shape the future of foodservice packaging.
Rising through the ranks: Praveena Premchand, delivery supervisor
Premchand joined JJ just over a year ago as a delivery administrator, and is now delivery supervisor, leading a team of 40 drivers. She supports customer service, vehicle maintenance and delivery operations – starting daily at 4.30am. As the first woman in JJ’s delivery office, she has brought confidence, positivity and inclusivity to a traditionally male-dominated environment.
Leading growth: Nina Grosicka, group accounts acquisitions manager
Grosicka plays a key role in securing major public sector contracts. These projects require months of detailed collaboration and persistence, resulting in multimillion-pound tender wins. Having joined JJ nearly 20 years ago as a customer service agent, Grosicka progressed through supervision, management and national accounts before moving into group account acquisition.
Today, she leads tendering across the business – identifying opportunities, managing full bid submissions and coordinating cross-functional teams. Her focus this year is expanding contracted customers and strengthening JJ’s presence in public sector and education markets.
Championing well-being: Sushmitha Venkatesh, HR coordinator
Venkatesh has played a pivotal role in shaping JJ’s approach to health, safety and well-being. She introduced epilepsy awareness training to foster a more inclusive environment, developed personalised health plans and led the creation of JJ’s Wellbeing
Plan. Venkatesh has also facilitated having a trained Mental Health First Aider in all 12 branches and completed a Level 3 Adult Mental Health: Workplace First Aider qualification herself, ensuring she has the knowledge and confidence to support employees across the business.
Her work has strengthened employee engagement, enhanced well-being across the business and contributed to JJ Foodservice achieving Great Place to Work certification in 2025 and 2026.
Operational excellence: Cheyenne Aymer, transport administrator
Aymer has made a strong impact in JJ Foodservice’s transport operations as the business’s first transport administrator coordinator.
She helped introduce a Reprimand Procedure that cut direct driver charges from 234 to just 16, improving compliance and reducing costs. Aymer was also responsible for refreshing JJ’s delivery manual, and regularly works with suppliers including insurers to secure better prices and fairer settlements. Detail driven and solutions focused, she is helping raise standards across the transport function.
Supporting education: Malgorzata Lasota, group accounts acquisition assistant
Lasota plays a key role in managing JJ Foodservice’s education contracts. She supports day-to-day communication with local authorities, ensures product availability, reviews pricing, handles complaints and prepares reports that help contracts run smoothly. She also works closely with the IT team to improve JJ’s new system and support colleagues using it.
Over the past year, all contracted councils renewed for another year – an achievement she’s especially proud of. Dedicated, detail driven and trusted with increasing responsibility, Lasota continues to strengthen relationships and improve processes across the education sector.
