The hire you are worried about

The brand has done well. A retailer has said yes to something much bigger than the current setup can deliver. Everybody is pleased and slightly terrified.

The founder knows the recipe will not survive being made the way a big plant makes things. Nobody in the building has industrialised a product before, and the first outside operator they hire will either protect what the brand is or quietly flatten it.

Why pet treats and specialty is different

Scale is the whole problem, and it is a technical problem before it is a management one. Small batch tolerances hide a lot. Run the same product at ten times the volume and the variation you were absorbing becomes a customer complaint.

Pet carries a regulatory frame most food operators have never touched. AAFCO labelling, state registration, FDA oversight of ingredients and claims. People assume it is simpler than human food. It is not, it is differently complicated.

Specialty food lives on claims that constrain manufacturing. Clean label, allergen-free, organic, single origin. Every one of those is a promise that shows up as a segregation requirement, a supplier audit or a line stoppage.

Co-manufacturing is normal here and the relationship is uneven. You are a small customer to a large plant, asking for short runs of something awkward. Managing that takes a different kind of leader than managing your own site.

What I screen for

I want to know whether they have taken a product from small batch to real volume and kept it recognisable. That is the specific experience, and most people who claim it have only seen one half of it.

For anyone in pet, I want to hear them talk about claims and labelling without being prompted. If it does not come up naturally, they have not carried the risk.

I am also listening for how they talk about the founder's product. Contempt for the artisan version is common and it is disqualifying.

Where I draw the line

I will not put a large-plant operator into a founder-scale business on the assumption that scaling down is easier than scaling up. It is not, and that mismatch is the most common failed hire I see in this sector.

Roles I run

Director to C-suite. Operations, technical and quality, supply chain, commercial, general management.

How the search runs

I do every step myself, from the briefing to the first ninety days after the offer, because there is nobody else here. More about how I work.

Tell me what you are trying to hire

I will tell you straight whether I am the right person for it. Book a 30 minute call, or email scott@williams-recruitment.com.