Executive Search Success Story: Building an Omnichannel Leadership Team for a Prestige Beauty Brand Expanding Beyond Specialty Retail

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a prestige beauty brand with the commercial, digital, marketing, and supply chain leadership required to expand from a specialty-retail-dependent model into a balanced omnichannel business spanning direct-to-consumer, Amazon, and international distribution.

The Challenge

A prestige beauty brand had built a $310M business almost entirely through one specialty retail partner, which represented more than 70% of revenue. As the retailer consolidated shelf space, rationalized brand assortments, and demanded increased promotional funding, the brand’s margins compressed and its growth stalled. Its direct-to-consumer channel was immature, it had no marketplace strategy, and international expansion had been limited to distributor arrangements with little control. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the brand’s growth plan:

• Revenue concentration exceeding 70% with a single specialty retail partner
• An underdeveloped direct-to-consumer channel with weak acquisition economics and retention
• No marketplace strategy, leaving unauthorized sellers to control the brand on Amazon
• Marketing built around retailer programs rather than brand-owned demand generation
• A supply chain designed for retailer replenishment rather than omnichannel fulfillment
• International growth dependent on distributors with limited brand control

Recognizing that channel diversification required an entirely new commercial leadership capability, the brand’s CEO and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, VP of Global Supply Chain, and VP of International. The company required an executive search partner with deep beauty industry expertise and access to leaders who had successfully diversified prestige brands beyond specialty retail.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Beauty & Personal Care Industry Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving beauty and personal care companies, with deep recruiting expertise across prestige, masstige, mass, and digitally native brands, contract manufacturers, and ingredient suppliers. This focus ensured an immediate understanding of specialty retail dynamics, direct-to-consumer economics, marketplace control, and the leadership profiles that drive omnichannel growth.

Multi-Role Commercial Execution

Our team specializes in running multiple senior commercial searches in parallel, ensuring the chief commercial, digital, and marketing leaders are selected as a complementary unit aligned to a single channel strategy.

Omnichannel Transformation Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting executives who have reduced retailer concentration, built profitable direct-to-consumer businesses, and taken control of marketplace channels in beauty and consumer categories.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Channel Strategy Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the CEO, board, and investor to review channel economics, retailer dynamics, direct-to-consumer metrics, marketplace exposure, and international plans, defining five executive profiles aligned with the diversification roadmap.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting commercial, digital, marketing, supply chain, and international executives at prestige and digitally native beauty brands who had led documented omnichannel expansions. Over 420 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of reducing retailer concentration, scaling direct-to-consumer channels profitably, establishing authorized marketplace programs, building brand-owned demand generation, and converting international distributor markets to controlled models. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented channel diversification plans to the CEO and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified channel, margin, and brand outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 420+ beauty and personal care executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized executive tier spanning commercial, digital, marketing, supply chain, and international within eight months.
• Grew direct-to-consumer from 9% to 24% of revenue with improved margins.
• Eliminated unauthorized marketplace sellers and established an authorized Amazon channel.
• Improved marketing efficiency by 30%.
• Reduced single-retailer concentration below 50% while growing revenue 22%.