A growing CPG company should consider hiring a COO when operational complexity has outgrown the founder or existing leadership team’s ability to manage it effectively. As a consumer brand grows, the number of people, channels, suppliers, systems, and decisions required to keep the business moving can increase quickly. At a certain point, the company may need a senior executive focused on turning strategy into execution across the organization.
For CPG brands, a COO can help connect the dots between leadership, operations, supply chain, sales, finance, and day-to-day execution—giving the CEO and other executives the capacity to focus on growth and long-term strategy.
What Does a COO Do at a CPG Company?
A COO is typically responsible for making sure the business operates effectively and that the company's strategy gets translated into action.
The exact scope of a COO varies by company, but at a growing CPG brand, the role may oversee areas such as:
Operations and supply chain
Manufacturing and production
Inventory and fulfillment
Cross-functional planning
Organizational processes and systems
Operational forecasting and execution
Retail and channel expansion
Team structure and accountability
Strategic initiatives and implementation
The COO doesn't necessarily own every operational function. Instead, the role often sits across functions, ensuring the organization is aligned and equipped to execute.
For a founder-led CPG company, this can become particularly valuable as the business moves from an entrepreneurial operating model toward a more complex organization.
Signs Your CPG Brand Needs a COO
There isn't a specific revenue threshold that automatically means it's time to hire a COO. The need usually becomes apparent through complexity, organizational strain, and the increasing gap between strategy and execution.
1. The Founder Has Become the Operational Bottleneck
If every major decision still needs to go through the founder, growth can eventually slow down.
This can happen even when the founder has built a strong leadership team. The problem isn't necessarily capability—it may be that the organization has outgrown the founder's ability to remain involved in every operational decision.
A COO can create greater ownership across the organization and give the CEO or founder more room to focus on vision, growth, relationships, and strategy.
If you're seeing this across your organization, it may also be a broader leadership gap rather than a COO-specific issue.
2. Multiple Functions Aren't Communicating Effectively
As a CPG company grows, decisions increasingly affect multiple departments.
A promotional plan can affect inventory. Inventory affects operations. Operations affect customer service and retail relationships. Pricing affects margins. Marketing affects demand forecasting.
When teams operate in silos or decisions repeatedly fall between departments, the business can lose speed.
A COO can provide the cross-functional leadership needed to connect these functions and establish clearer accountability.
3. Your Supply Chain Is Becoming More Complex
A growing CPG company may move from a relatively simple supply chain to a much more complicated network of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, warehouses, and logistics partners.
Adding SKUs, entering new markets, working with additional manufacturing partners, or expanding retail distribution can make operational management significantly more demanding.
At this stage, the company may need an executive who can look across the entire operating system rather than managing one individual function.
4. Revenue Is Growing Faster Than Infrastructure
Fast growth can create a gap between what the business is selling and what the organization is equipped to deliver.
You may see:
Processes that worked at $10 million but no longer work at $30 million
Teams relying heavily on spreadsheets or manual processes
Increasing operational errors
Inventory or fulfillment challenges
Decisions taking longer
Managers taking on responsibilities beyond their original roles
Growth itself isn't necessarily a reason to hire a COO. Growth that creates organizational complexity is.
5. You're Entering New Channels
Expanding from DTC into retail, adding new retail accounts, entering club or mass channels, or expanding internationally can fundamentally change how a CPG company operates.
Each channel can introduce different requirements around forecasting, inventory, logistics, customer relationships, pricing, and execution.
A COO can help ensure the organization is prepared to support that expansion rather than building infrastructure reactively after the fact.
6. Your Leadership Team Needs Stronger Execution
Some companies don't have a strategy problem. They have an execution problem.
Leadership may agree on where the business needs to go, but strategic initiatives aren't consistently getting completed.
If priorities repeatedly stall, ownership is unclear, or executives are spending too much time solving operational problems instead of moving the business forward, additional operational leadership may be needed.
7. Strategic Initiatives Aren't Getting Implemented
A company can have a strong growth plan and still struggle to execute it.
If new product launches, systems implementations, organizational changes, channel expansions, or other strategic initiatives repeatedly get delayed, it may indicate that the organization lacks the leadership capacity to turn plans into action.
A COO can serve as the executive accountable for making sure major priorities move from strategy to implementation.
COO vs. CEO: What's the Difference?
The distinction between a CEO and COO depends on the company's size, structure, and leadership model, but the roles generally have different areas of focus.
CEO:
Sets the company's overall direction, vision, strategy, and priorities. The CEO may also focus heavily on investors, the board, key customers, partnerships, fundraising, and external relationships.
COO:
Focuses on how the organization executes that strategy. The COO may oversee internal operations, cross-functional alignment, organizational processes, and execution against company priorities.
For a founder-led CPG company, the COO can effectively become the person responsible for making sure the organization can execute the vision the founder has established.
The strongest CEO-COO relationships are typically complementary rather than overlapping: the CEO focuses on where the company is going, while the COO helps ensure the organization can get there.
COO vs. Head of Operations: What's the Difference?
A Head of Operations typically owns a defined operational function. Depending on the company, that could include supply chain, fulfillment, manufacturing, or operational processes.
A COO generally has a broader organizational mandate.
A COO may oversee multiple functions and work across the leadership team to improve how the entire business operates.
The distinction becomes especially important as a company grows. If the challenge is primarily managing operations, a Head of Operations may be appropriate. If the challenge is coordinating the organization and translating company strategy into execution, a COO may be the better fit.
The right role depends on what the business actually needs—not simply on what title is most common.
What Experience Should a CPG COO Have?
The right CPG COO needs more than a strong operations background. The role requires an understanding of how different parts of a consumer business work together.
Depending on the company's needs, look for experience with:
CPG operations and supply chains
Manufacturing and production
Retail and DTC channels
Scaling organizations
Cross-functional leadership
Financial and operational planning
Organizational design
Process and systems development
Strategic execution
Managing through periods of rapid growth
Most importantly, evaluate the executive against the next stage of the business, not just its current challenges.
A COO who has successfully operated a $500 million company isn't automatically the right fit for a $25 million founder-led brand. The company may need someone who understands resource constraints, entrepreneurial environments, and the realities of building infrastructure while the business is still changing quickly.
For more on evaluating senior leadership candidates, see What Makes a Great CPG Executive? 7 Traits to Look for When Hiring Leadership.
When Is It Too Early to Hire a COO?
A COO isn't necessary for every growing CPG company.
It may be too early if:
The business is still relatively simple operationally
The founder can effectively manage the current organization
Functional leaders have clear ownership
Cross-functional communication is working well
The company's biggest challenges are functional rather than organizational
There isn't enough complexity to justify another senior executive
Hiring a COO too early can create unnecessary layers of management or unclear ownership.
The question shouldn't be "Are we big enough for a COO?"
It should be:
"Has our operational complexity reached a point where we need a senior executive dedicated to making the organization work as a whole?"
That distinction is important for growing consumer brands.
How to Find the Right CPG COO
Once a company determines that it needs a COO, the next challenge is finding someone with the right combination of operating experience, leadership ability, and CPG expertise.
Start by clearly defining:
What problem is this executive being hired to solve?
Is the priority supply chain? Organizational structure? Retail expansion? Founder delegation? Strategic execution? A combination of these?
What will this executive own?
A clear scope prevents overlap with the CEO, CFO, Head of Operations, or other functional leaders.
What does success look like?
Define the outcomes the COO needs to deliver over the first 12–24 months.
What type of company experience matters?
Consider stage, category, channels, growth rate, ownership structure, and operational complexity—not simply the size of a candidate's previous company.
For companies hiring at the executive level, a targeted search can also help identify passive candidates who aren't actively looking for their next role but have the specific experience the business needs.
For more on the broader process, see CPG Executive Search: What Consumer Brands Should Know Before Hiring a Leadership Team.
Use Peak Season to Identify Your Next Leadership Need
For many CPG companies, the holiday season makes operational complexity especially visible. Peak season can expose problems with forecasting, inventory, communication, decision-making, and organizational capacity.
Those challenges can provide useful signals when evaluating your leadership team heading into a new year.
If the same operational issues continue to surface, it may be time to ask whether the company needs a new process, stronger accountability, a different organizational structure—or a new executive.
How Fairfield Partners Helps CPG Companies Build Leadership Teams
Hiring a COO is a significant leadership decision, particularly for a growing consumer brand. The right executive needs to understand not only operations, but the company's growth stage, business model, culture, and where the organization is headed next.
Fairfield Partners specializes in executive search for high-growth consumer brands, with experience across food, beverage, supplements, personal care, pet care, and other natural and consumer products categories.
For a company evaluating a COO search, Fairfield Partners can help define the leadership need, identify the right candidate profile, and conduct a targeted search for executives with relevant CPG and growth-stage experience.
The goal isn't simply to hire a COO. It's to build the leadership capacity your company needs for its next stage of growth.
