Executive Search Success Story: Rebuilding Operations, Quality, and Food Safety Leadership for a Premium Pet Food Manufacturer After a Recall

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a premium pet food manufacturer with the operations, quality, food safety, supply chain, and technical leadership required to recover from a voluntary recall, restore retailer and consumer confidence, and return to growth.

The Challenge

A premium pet food manufacturer issued a voluntary recall after a pathogen finding traced to one of its four plants. The recall, while limited, damaged relationships with its largest pet specialty and mass retailers, triggered an FDA inspection with multiple observations, and exposed inconsistent food safety practices across the plants. The COO and quality leader departed, and the board concluded that the operations, quality, and technical leadership had to be rebuilt to a human-food standard. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the company’s recovery:

• A voluntary recall and FDA observations damaging retailer and consumer confidence
• Inconsistent food safety and sanitation practices across four plants
• Vacant chief operating and quality leadership during the most critical period
• Ingredient supply chain lacking supplier verification and traceability
• Aging plant infrastructure contributing to sanitation and environmental monitoring findings
• Retailers demanding documented corrective actions before restoring full distribution

Recognizing that recovery required a new leadership standard across operations and food safety, the CEO and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Operating Officer, VP of Quality & Food Safety, VP of Supply Chain, VP of Engineering & Technical Services, and VP of Regulatory Affairs. The company required an executive search partner with deep pet food and food manufacturing expertise and access to leaders who had led recall recoveries.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Pet Food & Pet Care Industry Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving pet food and pet care companies, with deep recruiting expertise across pet food manufacturers, treat and supplement producers, pet specialty retailers, and veterinary and pet services businesses. This focus ensured an immediate understanding of FSMA requirements, pathogen control, retailer expectations, and the leadership profiles that restore confidence after a recall.

Food Safety Recovery Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting operations and quality leaders who have led recall recoveries and FDA remediation in pet food and human food manufacturing.

Multi-Role Operations Execution

Our team specializes in running coordinated operations, quality, supply chain, engineering, and regulatory searches in parallel, ensuring leaders are selected as a complementary unit aligned to a single recovery plan.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Recovery Plan Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the CEO, board, and outside food safety advisors to review the recall root cause, FDA observations, retailer requirements, and plant conditions, defining five executive profiles aligned with a human-food-standard recovery plan.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting operations, quality, supply chain, engineering, and regulatory executives at pet food and human food manufacturers who had led documented recall recoveries and food safety transformations. Over 410 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of remediating FDA observations, building food safety cultures across multiple plants, implementing supplier verification and traceability, modernizing plant sanitation design, and restoring retailer confidence. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented recovery plans to the CEO and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified food safety, regulatory, and operational outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 410+ pet food and food manufacturing executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning operations, quality, supply chain, engineering, and regulatory within six months.
• Closed all FDA observations within five months.
• Implemented full ingredient traceability across the supply chain.
• Restored full distribution with all major retailers within eight months.
• Recovered revenue within twelve months and grew 11% the following year.