In the Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2009, Amit Burman won the
most admired food Professional of the Year: Food & Beverage Services for Lite Bite Foods, the restaurant group, which he conceptualized and which is now growing from strength to strength.
Amit Burman was responsible for Dabur India’s foray into processed foods business with the setting up of Dabur Foods Ltd. He became the CEO of Dabur Foods in 1999. He stepped down as the CEO of Dabur Foods when the company was merged into Dabur India Ltd in July 2007. Mr Burman has since been appointed as the vice chairman of Dabur India Ltd.(DIL). At Dabur Foods, Mr Burman had initiated a range of ethnic cooking pastes & chutneys and packaged fruit juices.
It was his passion for the business of food in its myriad dimesnsions which led Mr Burman to venture into the food retailing space with Lite Bite Foods, which manages food courts besides operating Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) and casual dining outlets at a wide range of locations, like malls, office complexes, high streets, highway locations, hospitals, metros and airports.
Burman has big plans for Lite Bite Foods. Lite Bite is investing nearly Rs 200 crores to establish a pan-India network of 200 restaurants. There are different formats and brands, operational under Lite Bite. In the casual dining space, it has Fresco (a restaurant chain with a distinct Mediterranean presence), Punjab Grill (a product of the JV with Jiggs Kalra), Asia 7 (Pan Asian format, with specialties from across the Asian continent, including China, Japan, Thailand, and Myanmar).
Under Amit Burman's leadership, Dabur’s Real has bagged the Reader’s Digest Consumer Choice Award for Most Trusted Brand in the juices category for 3 years in a row.
In the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) segment, Lite Bite has offerings like Street Foods of India, (SFI), a QSR format providing high quality Indian cuisine, Rapps, which offers a variety of rolls and Pino’s, which is an Italian food outfit.
Always looking forward to widen his horizon, Mr Burman has also established a wine business in India, christened Nature's Bounty Wines. Achievements have always been the companion of Mr Burman in his illustrious career. He was recently conferred the
Columbia SABA Young Leader Award 2008 by the Columbia Business School’s South Asia Business Association (SABA).
Under the leadership of Amit Burman, Dabur’s processed foods brand Real has bagged the
Reader’s Digest Consumer Choice Most trusted brand award in the juices category for three years in a row.
Despite being part of the promoter family, Amit Burman chose to work up his way at Dabur India Ltd. Mr Burman holds a MBA degree from University of Cambridge, a M.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering from Columbia University, USA and a B.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA. Burman describes himself as a complete family man who enjoys spending time with his family. . He has a private's pilot's license and enjoys flying.
- Raja Ghoshal