Confidential mandate
Food Processing Network Strategy Director — Consulting
Planned Hiring / New
A packaged-food group commissions a twelve-week network strategy covering plant roles, co-manufacturing, cold storage, distribution and product-flow economics before renewing major capacity contracts and capital choices.
The mandate
The problem is an inherited production and distribution network whose product flows no longer match demand, shelf-life or manufacturing capability. Capacity renewals risk locking in today’s inefficiencies.
The output is a product-flow baseline, plant and partner capability model, shelf-life and service constraints, three network options, landed economics, transition risks and board recommendation.
Milestone one lands 25 September 2026 with validated flows and constraints; milestone two on 30 October with modelled options; milestone three on 27 November with selected design, contract decisions and transition sequence.
The Network Strategy Board accepts when ninety-five percent of volume maps through reconciled flows, quality approves shelf-life assumptions, finance validates landed cost within three percent and each option meets agreed service and resilience thresholds.
The group provides demand, recipes, yields, capacity, changeovers, quality, shelf-life, freight, inventory and contract data. Plant and co-manufacturer access is arranged during the first four weeks.
Why this is external work
Plants and procurement defend assets and contracts they currently manage. A neutral network team can compare captive and partner capacity on one fact base. The assignment is tied to an imminent renewal cycle and ends with the chosen design.
What you will own
- Reconcile product, volume and lane flows for milestone one.
- Model plant and co-manufacturer capability by process and quality constraint.
- Capture shelf-life, batch, changeover and cold-storage consequences.
- Build three feasible network options and transition paths.
- Quantify landed cost, service, inventory and resilience.
- Test options with plant, quality and commercial leaders.
- Deliver milestone-three contract decisions and board recommendation.
Candidate qualifications
- 18–22 years in food manufacturing, network design or supply-chain strategy.
- Direct network optimisation across captive and co-manufacturing sites.
- Experience modelling shelf-life, yield, changeover and cold-chain constraints.
- Evidence of changing capacity contracts from landed economics.
- Strong plant-to-customer flow and transition planning capability.
- Independence from co-manufacturers and logistics providers.
Non-negotiables
- No brokerage or supplier commission.
- Quality constraints cannot be relaxed to improve model economics.
- Director visits all shortlisted plants and partner sites.
- Client owns model, assumptions and scenarios at acceptance.
- 49 words maximum. Which food network decision did you change, and what shelf-life or process constraint drove it?
- 49 words maximum. How would you compare captive and co-manufacturing economics without ignoring quality risk?
- 49 words maximum. Which product-flow and contract data must arrive before week two?
This mandate is confidential. The client is named only under a mutual NDA, and your own record is never listed, sold or shown to a company under your name until you release it for this specific mandate.