Executive Search Success Story: Building an Operations and Customer Leadership Team to Win National Brand Programs at a Private-Equity-Backed Food Co-Manufacturer

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a private-equity-backed multi-plant food co-manufacturer with the operations, food safety, planning, customer solutions, and engineering leadership required to meet national brand audit and service standards, onboard major programs without disruption, and double revenue under a sponsor’s growth plan.

The Challenge

A private equity sponsor had acquired a food co-manufacturer with a thesis built on winning outsourced production from national brands consolidating their co-manufacturer base. But the company had been built serving smaller brands and private label: its plants operated with different food safety standards and had failed two national brand audits, on-time-in-full performance was below 85%, planning was manual, customer onboarding was slow and error-prone, and capital projects ran late. Two national brands had declined to award programs after site visits. Executive leadership and the sponsor identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the growth plan:

• Two failed national brand food safety audits and inconsistent standards across six plants
• On-time-in-full performance below 85% against national brand expectations above 98%
• Manual demand planning and scheduling causing changeover inefficiency and shortages
• Slow, error-prone customer onboarding and product transfers
• Capital projects running late and over budget, delaying capacity for new programs
• National brands declining awards after site visits

Recognizing that winning national brands required a leadership team built to their standards, the sponsor and CEO engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Food Safety & Quality, Vice President of Supply Chain & Planning, Vice President of Customer Solutions & Business Development, and Vice President of Engineering & Capital Projects. The company required an executive search partner with deep co-manufacturing expertise and access to leaders from national brand manufacturing.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

CPG Co-Manufacturing & Co-Packing Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving co-manufacturers, co-packers, and private label producers across food, beverage, and consumer products, with deep recruiting expertise in operations, food safety, planning, customer solutions, and engineering. This focus ensured an immediate understanding of national brand audit expectations, service standards, and the leadership profiles that win and retain outsourced programs.

National Brand Talent Access

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting operations and quality leaders from national brand manufacturers into co-manufacturers, bringing the standards brands expect to the companies that serve them.

Private Equity Portfolio Experience

Our team works routinely with sponsors on leadership builds for co-manufacturing platforms, with a clear understanding of value-creation plans and customer concentration dynamics.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Growth Plan Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the sponsor’s operating partner, CEO, and board to review audit findings, service data, planning processes, onboarding failures, capital project history, and target customer requirements, defining five executive profiles aligned with the growth plan.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting operations, food safety, planning, customer solutions, and engineering executives at food co-manufacturers, branded food manufacturers, and private label producers who had led documented service and audit transformations. 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 achieving national brand audit approvals across multiple plants, raising on-time-in-full above 98%, implementing integrated planning in high-changeover environments, building structured customer onboarding and transfer processes, and delivering capital projects on time. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented growth and service plans to the sponsor, CEO, and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified audit, service, and customer outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 420+ food manufacturing and co-manufacturing executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning operations, food safety, planning, customer solutions, and engineering within seven months.
• Passed national brand and SQF audits at all six plants within nine months.
• Raised on-time-in-full from below 85% to 98.5%.
• Won programs from four national brands, including two previously lost.
• Doubled revenue to $1.05B within three years.