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Between inflated costs and a very up-and-down funding environment, the CPG industry has changed a lot in recent years, and to navigate this, companies are shifting their approach to hiring.
CPG recruitment company ForceBrands works with some brands you may have heard of, like General Mills, Coca-Cola, and Glossier. It’s been tracking the shifts in what roles brands are looking for, and in recent surveys of 500+ CPG companies making between $10 million and $150 million in revenue, it found some notable stats about the types of spots they’re filling the most—and the $$ they’re paying.
Role with it: The reports found that companies across categories were prioritizing finance and operations roles, with CFO and COO positions the top priorities for food & beverage and beauty companies between January 2022 and February 2023.
- ForceBrands saw a 42% increase in operations roles year over year, according to Sean Conner, ForceBrand’s co-founder and chief progress officer.
CPG brands used to bring in finance heads in the later stages of growth to prep for an acquisition, Conner explained, but starting last year, brands began to seek that “strategic finance support” earlier on, a trend he anticipated will continue this year.
“[Company leaders] have expanded their focus to ensure they have tight controls around cash flow management, a clear path to profitability, and opportunities for margin expansion in this inflationary market,” Conner said. “To achieve this, brands are investing in experienced CFO and COO talent.”
- According to ForceBrands, food and beverage COOs made between $245K and $350K, while CFOs got between $275K and $350K. Beauty COOs scored anywhere from $245K to $400K, with CFOs bringing in $275K to $400K.
- The average salary for directors of manufacturing saw the biggest bump (40%) across all food and bev roles between 2021 and 2023. In beauty, the pay for product development managers rose the most at 27%.
Hitting stores: CPGs that believed brick-and-mortar was dead may have started to kick themselves over the last year, as Conner shared they’re increasingly looking for execs that are experts in that retail channel in particular.
- Chief sales, revenue, and marketing officers, and “commercial leaders who have true omnichannel experience and can manage both [e-comm and brick-and-mortar],” were of particular interest.
“With rising customer acquisition costs and the challenges associated with conversion, the pendulum has swung toward focusing on scaling within retail,” Conner said.