Job Talk: Karim Fodil, Assistant Bakery Manager
“If you open a cabinet, there are work boots in it. Maybe 40 years old,” says Karim Fodil with a laugh. “That's what characterizes this place. So much history.” He himself hasn't been around that long: the energetic Brabander (!) has been working as an assistant bakery manager at the Limburg pie bakers in Sevenum for a year now. Prior to that, he worked at Goedhart Patisserie in Panningen for over twenty years. He started there as a pastry chef and grew into a team manager, all-round operator, team leader levels 1, 2 and 3, so made the step to assistant bakery manager last year.
Where it ends? He doesn't know that yet. “I want to keep learning and growing.”
Wide roll
Karim manages eight team leaders, including around eighty colleagues in the cake, pastry and logistics departments. “This position requires you to be a jack-of-all-trades,” he says. “You're a colleague, a coach, a bit of a psychologist, a planner, a pastry chef, you need to understand technology, be able to listen, pay attention, engage people, motivate, create loyalty. It's so broad.” That is why Karim is following and following various courses and continues to develop. “I want to understand. Why is something like that? Can it be done differently?” At Bakker Goedhart, he gets the space to do that. “This is a family business that looks at people and the long term. A multi-million dollar company that gives people time and opportunities, that's what you want to work for.”
The art of pie
So a great employer, but of course it all starts with the love for pastry. “I actually chose the pastry business very impulsively, mainly because of the emotion that baked goods evoke. I remember that happy moment of eating something really good from my childhood.” And even when he talks about pie, the most important product in Sevenum, you hear that love: “Dough and filling must be in harmony with each other. It's a marriage that happens in the oven.” From Sevenum, the pies go all over the country, and even cross the border with Cut the Cake. “That remains special,” says Karim. “That something made here is eaten in so many places.”
Half a century of experience — and innovation
The bakery in Sevenum has been around for fifty years and has gradually grown. And that is reflected in the building. “You almost need a navigation system here.” laughs Karim. But that history is not just in the building: colleagues have sometimes been working here for thirty or forty years. This requires a different way of leading. “People here know exactly what they're doing and they want to understand why things change. What is the importance, where do we want to go? But once they are convinced, they also go for it.” He noticed this at the start of Cut the Cake, for example. “These cakes were really something very new for us,” says Karim. There was a wide range of ideas in the bakery. “A colleague from the Technical Service came up with an idea. Facilitair thought along. In production, we looked at how it could be done. Everyone was doing the same thing: how do we get this done properly?” And with success — Cut the Cake is even making a name for itself internationally.
“Just because something has always gone well doesn't mean it's the best way to do something.”
Improving comes in the small things
Karim is happy about tangible progress, improvements. And that really doesn't have to be a complete renovation for him. Rather not even: “It's just a small improvement that gives me energy.” An example is the salt in the dough — if you forget that, you can throw the pie away. Together with the team, he looked for a solution. “A developer suggested adding the salt to another raw material so that it comes along automatically. It can be that simple. Nice, isn't it?”
At Goedhart Patisserie, you work in a family business that invests in people and craftsmanship. Here you get space to learn, grow and create something you're proud of together. Want to work with us too? Check out the vacancies.