Executive Search Success Story: Rebuilding Operations, Quality, and R&D Leadership at a Private-Equity-Backed Personal Care Contract Manufacturer

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a private-equity-backed personal care contract manufacturer with the operations, quality, R&D, supply chain, and commercial leadership required to resolve service and compliance issues, win back key brand customers, and deliver the sponsor’s value-creation plan.

The Challenge

A private equity sponsor had acquired a personal care contract manufacturer with a strong customer roster and five plants, but service performance had deteriorated: on-time-in-full rates had fallen below 80%, a quality incident had triggered a customer audit failure, and two major brand customers had moved volume to competitors. The company’s R&D function had stopped winning new formulation projects, and the commercial organization had no structured account management. Executive leadership and the sponsor identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the value-creation plan:

• On-time-in-full performance below 80% across five plants
• A customer audit failure following a quality and regulatory compliance incident
• Two major brand customers shifting volume to competing manufacturers
• An R&D organization losing formulation and innovation projects to competitors
• Raw material and packaging supply disruptions with no integrated planning
• No structured key account management or new business development process

Recognizing that recovery required new leadership across operations, quality, innovation, supply chain, and commercial functions, the sponsor and CEO engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Operating Officer, VP of Quality & Regulatory Affairs, VP of Research & Development, VP of Supply Chain, and Chief Commercial Officer. The company required an executive search partner with deep personal care manufacturing expertise and the ability to deliver a coordinated leadership team quickly.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Beauty & Personal Care Industry Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving beauty and personal care companies, including contract manufacturers, formulators, packaging suppliers, and brands, with a clear understanding of cosmetic and OTC regulatory requirements, multi-plant operations, and brand customer expectations.

Private Equity Portfolio Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting leadership teams for sponsor-backed consumer manufacturers, with a clear understanding of value-creation plans, operating partner expectations, and the urgency of post-acquisition performance recovery.

Multi-Role Operations Execution

Our team specializes in running coordinated operations, quality, R&D, and supply chain searches in parallel, ensuring leaders are selected as a complementary unit.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Operational Diagnostic Review

Our consultants partnered directly with the sponsor’s operating partner, CEO, and board to review plant performance, quality findings, customer feedback, R&D pipeline, and supply chain disruptions, defining five executive profiles aligned with the recovery and growth plan.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting operations, quality, R&D, supply chain, and commercial executives at personal care, cosmetics, OTC, and consumer products manufacturers who had led documented service and compliance recoveries. Over 390 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of recovering multi-plant service performance, passing brand and regulatory audits after remediation, rebuilding formulation pipelines, stabilizing material supply, and winning back lost accounts. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented recovery plans to the sponsor, CEO, and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified operational, quality, and commercial outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 390+ personal care and consumer products manufacturing executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning operations, quality, R&D, supply chain, and commercial within seven months.
• Improved on-time-in-full performance from below 80% to 97%.
• Passed all brand customer re-audits with no critical findings.
• Won fourteen new formulation projects and recovered two lost customers.
• Reduced material-driven stockouts by 65% and grew revenue 15%.