Sales
Sales directors, national account leaders and field sales talent who grow distribution and retail partnerships.
Hire Consumer Goods & Retail Talent
SundryHall helps consumer brands, manufacturers, distributors and retailers hire commercial, operational and corporate talent through structured searches that reach candidates a job posting never surfaces.
Sectors we recruit for
Consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, beauty, fashion and retail: every search is run by a consultant who already works in the category.
Roles we fill
Ecommerce & Digital
Ecommerce, marketplace and digital trading leaders for brands and retailers selling online.
Supply Chain
Supply chain, planning, logistics and procurement leaders who keep shelves and warehouses stocked.
Our economy depends on the best CPG talent
The wrong senior hire in a consumer goods or retail business costs far more than a recruiter's fee. A weak category director stalls a season. A mishired head of sales damages retail relationships that took years to build. At SundryHall, our work exists to prevent exactly that outcome. We are a specialist recruitment and executive search agency focused exclusively on the consumer goods and retail sector, and we help brands, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers hire consumer goods talent across commercial, operational, and corporate functions.
Our work is straightforward to describe and demanding to execute well: we identify, attract, and secure the people who drive consumer-facing businesses, from permanent managerial appointments through to confidential executive search. That includes buying and merchandising, category management, sales and national accounts, marketing and brand, supply chain and operations, and the finance and HR leadership that holds a growing consumer business together. If you need a CPG hiring partner who understands how your market actually works (how retail listings are won, how a range review reshapes a team, how seasonality dictates when a role must be filled), this page explains what we do, how an engagement runs, and how to start a conversation.
Consumer goods and retail businesses live or die by the quality of their people. Margins are thin. Seasonal windows are unforgiving, and a single buying or merchandising decision can define a financial year. The leaders who make those calls well are rarely browsing job boards. They are already employed, already performing, and usually only reachable through relationships built over years of sector work.
That is the gap a specialist recruiter fills. A generalist agency can advertise a role and filter applications, but it cannot tell you which category manager at a competitor is open to a move without advertising it, what salary will actually land a head of supply chain in your region, or why your last three offers were declined. Sector knowledge turns hiring from a transaction into an informed commercial decision, because the person advising you has watched the same talent pool move for years and knows where the strong candidates sit and what it takes to move them.
We see the consequences of weak hiring processes regularly: roles open for six months while teams stretch to cover them, shortlists padded with available candidates when suitable ones were needed, and offers lost at the finish line because nobody benchmarked the market before going to it. Our consumer goods hiring solutions are built to remove those failure points early, before they cost you time, budget, or credibility with the candidates you want most.
The commercial case is straightforward. A vacant commercial or operational leadership role does not simply sit still: it slows decisions, pushes work onto people who are already stretched, and delays the launches, range reviews, and supplier negotiations that depend on it. Hiring well is one of the few levers that affects revenue, cost, and culture at the same time, which is why it deserves the same rigor you would apply to any other significant investment.
What our consumer goods hiring solutions cover
SundryHall provides end-to-end hiring support for permanent and executive-level appointments across the consumer goods and retail sector. A typical engagement covers role scoping and job specification, sector-focused sourcing and headhunting, screening and structured assessment, shortlist presentation, offer management and negotiation, and post-placement follow-up to confirm the hire settles and performs. You deal with one accountable consultant from start to finish, rather than being passed between a salesperson, a researcher, and an administrator.
Alongside search delivery, we provide market intelligence that improves hiring decisions before a search even begins. That includes salary benchmarking, talent mapping, competitor organization analysis, and frank advice on the hiring process itself, including where a brief is unrealistic or a timeline is working against you. Engagements run on contingent, retained, or exclusive terms, and we recommend the structure based on the seniority and sensitivity of the role rather than defaulting to whichever model suits us.
Two commitments define the shape of our work. First, we focus on permanent managerial and executive-level hiring, so our networks and processes are built for consequential appointments where the cost of error is high. Second, we prioritize shortlist quality over volume. You will meet a small number of candidates we can vouch for, with a clear view of each one's strengths and gaps, not a stack of résumés we cannot stand behind.
The services below can be used individually or combined within a single engagement.
Permanent recruitment
We manage permanent searches for managerial and senior roles across the consumer goods and retail sector, from the first scoping conversation through to a signed offer and a confident start date. Typical briefs span commercial and account management, marketing and brand, category and buying, supply chain and operations, manufacturing and technical, and finance. Each search begins with an agreed specification and a realistic view of the available talent pool, so expectations are set before sourcing starts.
Executive search
For director, VP, and C-suite appointments, we run discreet retained searches with full market mapping and a structured approach to engaging candidates who are not actively looking. Confidentiality is handled explicitly: we agree in advance how the opportunity is described, when your name is disclosed, and who inside your business is involved. You receive progress updates throughout, including the organizations approached and the reasons strong candidates declined, which is often as useful as the shortlist itself.
Talent mapping and market intelligence
We map competitor organizations, benchmark compensation, and identify where the talent you need actually sits, giving you a factual basis for workforce planning and future hiring. A mapping exercise typically sets out the relevant companies and their structures, named individuals by level and function, movement patterns across the sector, and an assessment of how receptive each group is likely to be to an approach. This work is frequently commissioned ahead of a restructure, a new site, or a succession plan, well before any role is signed off.
Salary benchmarking and advisory
We advise on realistic salary bands, benefits expectations, and offer structures for the specific function and sub-sector you are hiring into, so your offers are competitive before negotiations begin. Benchmarking draws on live search data rather than generic published averages, and accounts for bonus, long-term incentives, car allowance, and hybrid working arrangements, all of which materially shift what a candidate compares your offer against. Where a package sits below market, we will tell you plainly and set out the options.
Employer branding support
We help you present the role, the team, and the business credibly to senior candidates, because at this level the interview runs both ways and weak positioning loses strong people. That covers the written brief and job job posting, the structure and tone of the interview process, who the candidate should meet and when, and how the growth story and leadership culture are articulated. Small adjustments here, such as reducing an interview stage or clarifying the first-year mandate, often make the difference between an acceptance and a counter-offer.
Placement aftercare
We stay in contact with you and the placed candidate after the start date, surfacing onboarding issues early and protecting the investment you made in the hire. Structured check-ins at regular intervals through the first months give both sides a route to raise concerns while they are still easy to resolve. The terms of each placement are agreed in writing at the outset, so your position is clear in the rare event that a hire does not work out.
Diverse opportunities in CPG
The consumer goods and retail sector is not one market. It is a collection of distinct sub-sectors, each with its own commercial rhythms, talent pools, and hiring pressures. A candidate who thrives in grocery retail may struggle in a D2C brand, and a supply chain leader from household products brings different instincts to one from fashion. Our consultants work across FMCG, food and beverage, and beauty and personal care, as well as fashion and apparel and household products. On the retail side, we support grocery and specialty retail, e-commerce and D2C brands, and wholesale and distribution businesses.
Functionally, our coverage is equally broad. We regularly recruit for sales and account management, marketing and brand, and category management and buying roles. We also cover merchandising, supply chain and logistics, and procurement, alongside manufacturing and operations, finance, HR, and technology leadership. This is a selection of what we cover, not an exhaustive catalog, so if your role sits outside the functions named here, contact us and we will tell you directly whether we can help.
Who we work with
Our clients are hiring managers, HR and talent acquisition leaders, and founders and executives at consumer-facing businesses. That includes established FMCG manufacturers, growth-stage D2C brands, multi-site retailers, and the wholesalers and distributors who connect them. The common thread is a hire that matters: a role where a mediocre appointment has visible commercial consequences and where the brief deserves more than a database search.
Because we work across the United States, we support both single-site businesses and organizations hiring nationally. Our consultants combine national reach with the sub-sector focus that only comes from working this market every day, so a search in one region benefits from what we learn across all of them.
We are equally comfortable partnering with a lean founding team making its first senior appointment and with an established talent function that needs specialist support alongside an in-house pipeline. In practice that means adapting to how you already work: acting as an extension of your hiring team, briefing against your scorecards, and keeping candidate experience consistent with your employer brand from first approach to offer.
How an engagement with SundryHall works
Every search follows a structured process, adapted to the seniority and confidentiality of the role. Whether you need to hire retail talent for a regional leadership position or run a confidential executive search, the sequence below shows exactly what to expect, who does what, and when. Nothing is left to chance, and you always know which stage the search is at.
Scoping
We start with a detailed conversation about the role, the team, the commercial context, and what success looks like in the first year. From that we produce a clear job specification covering responsibilities, reporting lines, essential experience and the softer qualities that will make someone effective in your business. Agreeing this up front means every later stage is measured against the same benchmark.
Market mapping
We map the relevant talent pool across competitor and adjacent organizations, identifying where the strongest people currently sit and what it would take to move them. The sourcing strategy, including any companies you would prefer we avoid, is agreed with you before anyone is approached.
Sourcing and approach
We approach candidates directly through our sector network and targeted headhunting, presenting your opportunity with discretion and accuracy. Passive candidates who are not actively looking are often the strongest on a shortlist, and representing your business credibly at first contact is what persuades them to take a conversation.
Screening and assessment
We conduct structured interviews and assess each candidate against the agreed specification, testing motivation and fit as rigorously as capability. We probe track record in detail, clarify notice periods and salary expectations early, and screen out anyone whose reasons for moving will not survive a counter-offer.
Shortlist
You receive a short, fully briefed shortlist with our frank assessment of each candidate, including where each one is strong and where each one needs probing. We would rather present three genuinely credible people than pad a longlist, and we tell you plainly if the market is not producing what the brief requires so you can adjust scope or package before time is lost.
Offer and close
We manage the offer and negotiation process, using live market knowledge to reach terms both sides can accept without the deal stalling at the final stage. Counter-offers, competing processes and resignation nerves are handled as they arise, so acceptance holds through to a confirmed start date.
Aftercare
We follow up through onboarding and beyond, checking that the placement is working and addressing any early concerns before they grow. A search is only successful when the person is still performing well months later, and we stay in contact with both sides to make sure that is the case.
Why clients choose SundryHall as their CPG hiring partner
Specialization is our core differentiator. We do not recruit across every industry, and that tight focus means our consultants understand consumer and retail business models, seasonality, and commercial pressure at a practical level. When you describe the trading problem behind a vacancy (a listing at risk, a category losing share, a route-to-market that needs rebuilding), we recognize it, and we know which candidates have solved that same problem before.
Our candidate relationships are built the same way: through long-term contact with professionals across the sector, not one-off transactions. That lets us reach passive candidates credibly and represent your brand accurately in the first conversation, which is where most senior approaches succeed or fail. For confidential searches, that discretion is not a courtesy. It is a requirement, and we treat it as one.
We also commit to transparency throughout the process. You will hear from us when the news is good and when it is not, including frank feedback when your brief, your timeline, or your salary band is working against you. A hiring partner who only tells you what you want to hear is not a partner at all.
In short, clients come back to us because the combination is hard to find elsewhere: sector depth, a live network rather than a database, genuine confidentiality, and honest counsel on what the market will actually bear.
Frequently asked questions
What types of roles do you recruit for?
We focus on permanent managerial, senior, and executive-level appointments across commercial, operational, and corporate functions within consumer goods and retail. That spans areas such as sales and account management, marketing and brand, category and buying, supply chain and operations, finance, and HR. If you are unsure whether a specific role sits within our coverage, ask us directly and we will give you a straight answer on whether it does, and, if it does not, we would rather tell you upfront than take a brief we cannot do justice to.
Do you work on retained or contingent terms?
Both, plus exclusive arrangements. Retained search is typically the right structure for executive and confidential appointments, where commitment on both sides supports a thorough, mapped-out process. Exclusivity often works well where a role is important but does not warrant a full retained search, and contingent terms frequently suit mid-senior permanent hires. We will recommend the structure that fits the role, the market, and the urgency, not the one that suits us.
How do you find candidates who are not actively looking?
Through direct headhunting and an established network of sector professionals we stay in contact with over time. We map the relevant companies and functions, identify the people doing the job well today, and approach them discreetly with a clear, honest picture of the opportunity. Most of the strongest candidates we place were not on the market when we approached them, which is precisely why a structured, confidential approach matters more than simply advertising a role and waiting.
Can you help us understand what we should be paying?
Yes. Salary benchmarking is a standard part of our advisory work. Before you go to market, we will give you a realistic view of current compensation expectations for your specific function, seniority level, and sub-sector, including base salary, bonus structures, and the wider package elements candidates are weighing up. The aim is simple: to make sure the offer stage confirms what everyone already expects, rather than unraveling at the end.
Start the conversation
If you are planning a hire, replacing an underperforming search, or simply want a realistic read on the market before you commit, talk to us. SundryHall works with consumer goods and retail businesses across the United States, with offices in Atlanta, Marlborough, Parsippany, and Cheyenne.
Call us at +1 888-202-9809 or email [email protected] with a brief outline of the role, and one of our consultants will come back to you with a frank assessment of how we can help.
The more context you can share at the outset, the more useful that first conversation will be. It helps to tell us the title and level of the role, where it sits in your structure, whether it is a replacement or a newly created position, the market or category it covers, and the timeline you are working to. If you have already run a search that did not land, tell us what happened: knowing where a previous process stalled often says more about the brief than the shortlist did.
You do not need a finished job description to get in touch. Some of the most productive early conversations we have are with leaders who know the gap in their team but have not yet decided how to define the role. We are happy to talk through options, test an idea against what we are seeing in the market, and tell you honestly if we think the role is going to be difficult to fill as written.
What happens next
One of our consultants will respond with an initial view: whether the role is one we are well placed to work on, what the market for that profile currently looks like, and what a realistic timeline would be. If we are not the right firm for the assignment, we will say so rather than take on a search we cannot do well.
From there, if it makes sense to continue, we will arrange a longer briefing call to work through the detail: the responsibilities, the reporting lines, the compensation range, the kind of background that will succeed in your business, and the areas where you may need to be flexible. That conversation shapes the search strategy before any approach is made.
Working with us from anywhere in the US
Our offices in Atlanta, Marlborough, Parsippany, and Cheyenne give us a presence across the Southeast, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Mountain West, but our searches are not limited to those regions. We recruit nationally for consumer goods and retail businesses, and we are comfortable running remote, hybrid, or on-site mandates wherever the role is based.
If you would rather meet in person, let us know when you get in touch and we will arrange a time at whichever office is most convenient. Otherwise, a call is usually the fastest way to get to a clear answer.
For candidates
If you work in consumer goods or retail and want to be considered for current or future searches, email [email protected] with your background and the kind of move you are looking for. We will not put you forward for anything without speaking to you first, and we will not share your details with a client without your agreement.
Ready to find your next consumer goods or retail leader?
Tell us about the position, the location and the timeline. A consultant who works your sector will follow up to talk through how we would run the search.