Company Name
Refresco
Search Job Title
VP of North American Operations
Client Profile
World's largest global independent beverage solutions provider for retailers and Global, National and Emerging (GNE) brands in Europe, Australia, US, Canada, and Mexico. Company’s production platform covers over 70 manufacturing sites worldwide, offering products and packaging combinations from 100% fruit juices to carbonated soft drinks and mineral waters in carton, PET, Aseptic PET, cans, and glass, to meet individual customer specifications/ requirements.
Role Objectives & Challenges
To support the rapid growth of its North American manufacturing operations, our client prioritized hiring a new Vice President of North American Operations. This executive would be responsible for the overall leadership of beverage manufacturing plants across the U.S. and Canada, including oversight of Plant Operations, Engineering, and Environment, Health & Safety (EHS).
The challenge was to source and qualify a top-tier, hands-on operations leader with deep manufacturing expertise—someone capable of driving operational consistency across the network. The ideal candidate needed to establish and uphold standards, implement continuous improvement best practices, and align strategic objectives to deliver measurable results across all facilities.
Company leadership specifically sought a seasoned professional from the food and beverage industry who was, above all, a strong people leader. They wanted someone who would prioritize team development and training, with a long-term focus on talent retention and building a high-performance culture throughout the organization.
Our Approach to Solve the Search
SCM Talent Group’s deep expertise in the food and beverage industry enabled us to demonstrate our network strength and recruiting acumen to the client’s COO and CMO. We were awarded the search in part due to our proven success in sourcing high-impact supply chain and operations leadership talent. We led a robust, retained national search targeting accomplished executive operations leaders with strong track records in team building and transformation. Given the complexity of the role and the client’s expectations, we committed to bi-weekly check-ins with the VP of HR to review real-time Candidate Sourcing Pipeline reports.
Our approach was intentionally expansive at the outset, with our team engaging and evaluating as many as 400 candidates across North America. Throughout the process, we worked closely with the client’s leadership to continuously calibrate the search strategy based on feedback and evolving priorities. This collaborative and iterative process allowed us to refine the candidate pool to a highly qualified slate of three finalists.
The Hire & Results
Each finalist underwent in-depth evaluation and participated in on-site corporate interviews. We were pleased to meet all of the client’s core requirements—including their emphasis on finding a “people person” with a successful track record in operational turnaround. One standout candidate brought not only exceptional leadership and team-building skills but also hands-on technical expertise in maintenance, which enhanced their ability to communicate effectively with frontline teams and ensure long-term retention and performance.
