Interim COO, Confidential FMCG Brand

The mandate

A well-established UK consumer business is appointing an Interim Chief Operating Officer to run its end-to-end operation through the next phase of growth. The seat is board-level, reports to the CEO and the founding directors, and is open for an immediate start.

The remit is unusually broad for a business of this size. Procurement, supply chain, warehousing, third-party logistics, in-house production and the technical and quality function all sit under this role. The commercial plan is already set and funded — the brief is to make the operational base carry it.

This is an interim engagement with a defined mandate, not a caretaker seat. You will have the authority to change how the operation runs.

What you would own

Board and leadership

• Act as the operational voice on the board and the senior leadership team, giving the CEO and the directors a straight read on what the operation can absorb and what it cannot.
• Lead and develop the operations leadership team, holding a standard of accountability and continuous improvement.
• Partner with commercial leadership so the customer gets the same experience across every channel.
• Drive efficiency and cost programmes across the wider business, not only inside operations.

Supply chain

• Own the chain end to end — from the raw material contract to the parcel arriving.
• Negotiate and hold the senior supplier agreements: terms, quality, reliability, continuity.
• Build risk management into the chain so availability holds through disruption, and set the service levels the business commits to.
• Take cost and latency out of the chain through data, process and technology.

Procurement

• Lead inventory procurement, trading price, terms and quality so the customer gets a consistent product at a competitive price.
• Hold suppliers to their compliance obligations and manage risk across every link.

Logistics and warehousing

• Run and improve the internal warehousing operation across more than one site, including one outside the UK, to a consistent service level.
• Own the senior relationship with the third-party logistics partner — performance against the contracted service levels, and cost against plan.
• Map and optimise the distribution network, trading speed against cost against quality across a range of operating models.
• Bring in logistics technology that improves tracking, visibility and cost control.

Production

• Direct production operations so output targets are met without conceding quality.
• Continue the lean and continuous-improvement programme: less waste, more throughput.
• Hold safety regulation and best practice across every production process.
• Own the production budget and find the cost out of it.

Technical and quality

• Lead the technical function on product specification and quality control.
• Own what the label says — product claims, mandatory information and packaging compliance.
• Ensure every product meets the standards and the regulatory requirements of the markets it sells into.
• Run supplier quality assurance, so what arrives is what was specified, and is safe.

What the client is looking for

Essential

• Around ten years or more in supply chain and operations, with real leadership tenure. This is not a first C-suite seat.
• Leadership across manufacturing, supply chain and logistics together — not depth in one and a passing familiarity with the others.
• Experience managing a team of 100 or more, direct or indirect.
• P&L ownership, or accountability for large-scale budgets.
• Multi-site or international operations scaled under your leadership.
• Strong data analytics: able to produce, interrogate and draw conclusions from operational data, and to name the drivers behind performance.
• Available at short notice.

Strong preference

• FMCG background.
• Direct-to-consumer and e-commerce operating experience.

Ideal

• Nutritional health products, supplements, or an adjacent regulated consumer category.

How you work

• Able to hold your own in a board conversation outside your own function, and to change a decision rather than only inform it.
• Decisive in a fast-moving environment, and comfortable initiating change rather than administering it.
• Customer-centric — operational decisions made with the person receiving the parcel in mind.
• A leader people follow: collaborative, direct, invested in the people around you.

The terms

• Engagement: interim, immediate start
• Location: London, hybrid — three days on site, two from home
• Level: board seat, reporting to the CEO and the founding directors
• Sector: FMCG, direct-to-consumer

About this listing

This is a confidential mandate held exclusively by Fractional Quest. The client is not named publicly, and this role is not syndicated from another board — it is ours.

We do not want a CV at this stage. Send your LinkedIn profile, and a line on why the mandate interests you if you want to add one. If your background fits, we come back to you with the client's name and the full brief before anything goes further. If it does not fit, we tell you that too.