Fractional Operations for CPG & F&B Brands
Your ops team,
minus the full-time hire.
I'm John — I bootstrapped a kombucha brand to national retail and built a DTC operation from $0 to $15M in 3 years, shipping 1,000+ orders a day in-house. Now I take full ownership of the mission-critical operations that make or break growing CPG brands.
Track Record
Brands I've worked with.
I don't advise from the sidelines — I own it. Production. 3PL and co-man management. Retail orders. Demand planning. Shipping and freight. The mission-critical stuff that breaks brands when nobody's driving. I run it, so you get your bandwidth, your margins, and your confidence back.
What I Own
Full ownership. Not advice.
Fractional operations and fractional COO support for CPG, food & beverage brands — I take these mission-critical functions off your plate entirely, so mistakes don't happen on your watch. Click any of these to flag it in your intake below.
Fractional COO & Operations Leadership
I embed as your fractional COO — running day-to-day operations so you can focus on capital, partnerships, and growth. This is hands-on operating leadership, not an advisory retainer: I own the decisions, the vendor relationships, and the results.
Fractional COO · Interim operations leader · Outsourced COO for CPG brands · Part-time COO · Operations consultant
Manufacturing & Co-Packer Management
I manage co-manufacturer and co-packer relationships end-to-end — sourcing, contract negotiation, production scheduling, and quality control — so runs stay on spec, on time, and on budget.
Co-packer management · Co-manufacturer sourcing · Production planning · Contract manufacturing oversight · CPG manufacturing consultant
Retail Commercialization
I get brands retailer-ready — trade spend strategy, pricing and promo planning, EDI and item setup, and onboarding into new retail or wholesale distribution so launches hit their on-shelf date.
Retail commercialization · Retail launch support · Trade spend strategy · Wholesale distribution consultant · Retailer onboarding · EDI setup
3PL & Warehouse Management
I source, evaluate, and manage third-party logistics partners and warehouse operations — SLAs, inventory accuracy, and fulfillment performance — so orders ship on time and OTIF stays high.
3PL management · Warehouse management consultant · Fulfillment operations · OTIF · Order fulfillment consultant · Logistics management for CPG
Demand & Supply Planning
I own demand forecasting, inventory planning, and supply planning so you produce with confidence, avoid stockouts and overstocks, and keep cash from getting trapped in the wrong inventory.
Demand planning consultant · Supply planning · Inventory management · S&OP · Forecasting for CPG brands · Inventory optimization
Systems Integration
I select and integrate the ops tech stack — ERP, inventory management systems, EDI, and reporting tools — so your team gets clean data, automated workflows, and real-time visibility.
Systems integration · ERP implementation · EDI integration · Inventory management systems · Operations technology consultant
How It Works
Three steps. No sales deck.
Book a fit call
30 minutes on your brand, your gaps, and whether this is a fit both ways.
Get a real proposal
I review your intake and current operating picture, then propose scope and structure.
I embed and go
We lock scope and cadence. I'm typically running within one to two weeks.
Sound Familiar?
Drowning in the day-to-day?
Between running the business and running the operations, something always gives. After years in the weeds at brands like mine, here's where I usually find the cracks:
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Retail orders get handled reactively.
POs slip through, deductions and chargebacks quietly eat your margin, and nobody's watching OTIF until a retailer flags it — and by then it's already cost you.
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Production runs on one person's inbox.
The co-packer relationship lives in someone's head, not a system. Runs get missed or under-communicated, and cash ends up tied up in the wrong inventory.
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Demand planning is a spreadsheet nobody trusts.
Forecasts are guesses. Stockouts and overstocks happen in the same quarter. Nobody has the bandwidth to build a real S&OP process, so it never gets built.
If even one of these sounds familiar, that's exactly the gap I fill.
Book a Fit Call →Common Questions
Fractional COO, answered.
What does a fractional COO do for a CPG brand?
A fractional COO takes hands-on ownership of the operational functions that keep a CPG or food & beverage brand running — manufacturing and co-packer management, 3PL and warehouse operations, retail commercialization, demand and supply planning, and the systems that connect them. Unlike a consultant who advises, a fractional COO makes the day-to-day decisions and owns the outcomes, working embedded in the business on a part-time or contract basis rather than as a full-time hire.
How much does a fractional COO cost compared to a full-time COO?
A fractional COO typically costs a fraction of a full-time COO's salary and equity, since you're paying for the specific time and scope you need rather than a full annual salary, benefits, and equity package. For a growing CPG brand between $1M and $20M in revenue, a fractional arrangement lets you get senior operations leadership at a stage where a full-time COO hire usually isn't justified yet.
What's the difference between a fractional COO and an operations consultant?
A consultant typically delivers a recommendation, a deck, or a report and leaves the execution to you. A fractional COO takes full ownership of execution — running vendor relationships, making production and inventory calls, and being accountable for the operational result, not just the advice. That distinction is the whole premise behind "full ownership, not advice."
When should a growing CPG brand hire a fractional COO?
The most common trigger points are: the founder is buried in day-to-day operations instead of growth and fundraising, a retail launch or new distribution deal needs commercialization support, production or co-packer relationships are being managed reactively, or demand planning has outgrown a spreadsheet. Brands from roughly $1M to $20M in revenue, funded or breakeven, are typically the right stage for a fractional engagement.
Do you work with both retail/wholesale and DTC/ecommerce brands?
Yes — retail and wholesale distribution, ecommerce and DTC fulfillment, or brands running both channels at once. The operational fundamentals (manufacturing, 3PL, demand planning, systems) apply across channel types, and most growing CPG brands end up managing some mix of both.
Step 1 of 2
Tell me about your brand.
Three minutes now saves us both time on the call.
Step 2 of 2
Book your fit call.
30 minutes on your current operating picture, where the gaps are, and whether a fractional engagement makes sense. No pitch deck required.