Executive Search Success Story: Building the Executive Team to Scale a High-Protein Better-for-You Snack Brand Into National Mass Retail

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a fast-growing high-protein, low-sugar snack brand backed by growth equity with the chief executive, R&D, sales, supply chain, and marketing leadership required to move from natural and online channels into national mass and club retail, meet surging demand from GLP-1 and protein-focused consumers, and scale from $90M to $300M.

The Challenge

A high-protein snack brand had grown rapidly in natural retail and online as GLP-1 users and protein-focused consumers sought satisfying, low-sugar options, and had secured national distribution with the two largest mass retailers and a club chain. The founder recognized the brand needed a professional operator, R&D was a two-person team unable to meet retailer requests for new formats, sales had no mass or club experience, co-manufacturer capacity could not support a tripling of volume, and marketing had been built on social media without the brand-building capability mass retail required. Executive leadership and the investor identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the scale-up:

• A founder-CEO transitioning to a brand and product role with no professional chief executive
• A two-person R&D team unable to deliver the formats and renovations retailers requested
• No mass or club retail sales experience ahead of a national launch
• Co-manufacturer capacity and protein ingredient supply insufficient for a tripling of volume
• Marketing dependent on social media with no brand-building or shopper marketing capability
• Competitive response from large food companies entering the protein snack category

Recognizing that the retail launch required a professional executive team working alongside the founder, the founder, board, and investor engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Executive Officer, Vice President of Research & Development, Chief Sales Officer, Vice President of Supply Chain & Operations, and Chief Marketing Officer. The company required an executive search partner with deep better-for-you brand expertise and experience scaling challenger brands into mass retail.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

GLP-1 & Better-for-You Food Innovation Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving better-for-you, nutrition, and protein-forward brands, with a clear understanding of GLP-1 consumer demand, challenger brand economics, and the leadership profiles that scale founder-led brands into national retail.

Challenger Brand Scale-Up Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting executive teams for growth-equity-backed consumer brands moving from natural and online channels into mass and club, with a clear understanding of the operational and commercial demands of that transition.

Founder Transition Expertise

Our team has a documented history of structuring executive teams that work alongside founders, keeping founders central to product and brand while professional operators run the company.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Scale-Up Plan Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the founder, board, and investor to define the founder’s ongoing role, the retail launch timeline, product roadmap, supply requirements, and brand strategy, producing five executive profiles aligned with the scale-up plan.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting chief executives, R&D, sales, supply chain, and marketing leaders at better-for-you brands, nutrition and sports nutrition companies, and consumer packaged goods challengers who had scaled brands into mass and club retail. Over 370 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of partnering with founders, launching challenger brands nationally in mass and club, developing protein-forward products at pace, scaling co-manufacturer networks and ingredient supply, and building brand and shopper marketing from a social-first base. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists completed working sessions with the founder, presented scale-up plans to the board and investor, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified retail launch and growth outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 370+ better-for-you and consumer brand executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized executive tier spanning chief executive, R&D, sales, supply chain, and marketing within eight months.
• Launched four new formats including GLP-1-oriented portion-controlled and higher-fiber lines.
• Delivered the national mass and club launch with 97% on-time fill.
• Lifted aided brand awareness from 14% to 38%.
• Grew revenue from $90M to $300M within two years.