Consumer Executive Search

Consumer markets punish slow decisions. Margins are tighter, competition is fiercer and the expectation on leaders to perform from day one has never been higher.

Whether you are appointing a CEO to scale a brand, a CFO to protect margin in a volatile environment or a CMO to rebuild commercial momentum, the quality of that hire determines what comes next.

Redgrave’s consumer executive search experts partner with Boards, CEOs, and investors to appoint senior leaders across the consumer sector, from global FMCG businesses to PE-backed direct-to-consumer brands, from luxury groups to high-street retail.

Our partner-led consumer executive search is built around pace without compromise. Every search is led from brief to placement by a senior partner with direct, hands-on experience of appointing FMCG, retail, hospitality and direct-to-consumer leaders at the highest level.

Why Boards Choose Redgrave for Consumer Executive Search

Consumer executive search requires more than a database. The strongest consumer leaders are rarely actively looking. Many are delivering growth inside successful businesses, highly selective about opportunities, and only engage when approached by people who genuinely understand their world. Accessing them requires trust, relationships and sector credibility built over time.

Here is what sets our consumer sector executive search practice apart:

Every Consumer Executive search is led by a partner throughout – not handed down after the introductory call. You work directly with the person doing the research, making the approaches, and assessing the candidates. That seniority matters when you’re recruiting for the most senior roles in your consumer organisation.

We have spent years building a dedicated consumer executive search practice. Our network spans goods, retail, leisure, travel, hospitality, luxury, beauty, entertainment and direct-to-consumer- people who trust us enough to take our call. That translates into access to candidates who may not even be on the open market.

We don’t present candidates based on their profiles alone. Every shortlisted executive is assessed by a partner against your specific brief, examining commercial impact, technical credibility, board presence and cultural alignment. You get evidence, not impressions.

We will challenge your thinking on the brief if we think it needs challenging. If the profile you’re describing doesn’t exist in the numbers you’re expecting, we will tell you. Our value is in our judgement, not just our reach.

Consumer roles we place

Our consumer practice recruits across the full range of C-suite and senior leadership positions. The roles below represent our core activity, if your requirement sits outside this list, speak to us and we will tell you directly whether we can help.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Finance Director
Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
Chief People Officer (CPO) and HR Director

Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Chief Customer Officer (CCO)
Brand Director and Marketing Director
Ecommerce and Digital Director
Supply Chain and Operations Director
Interim senior leaders across all of the above

We also support board-level appointments, including Non-Executive Directors and Chairs with consumer sector experience, where Boards and investors require independent expertise at the most senior level.

Some Of Our Consumer Clients

We’re proud to partner with leading organisations across the UK, Europe, and the United States. Our mission is to help build leadership teams that drive growth and innovation on a global scale.

What Our Clients And Candidates Say

Redgrave has supported companies and leaders across the globe in hiring the right CFO for the business. Here is what some of them have to say.

Imogen, David and the team at Redgrave were genuinely easy to work with. They took the time to understand what we were looking for, and I felt able to be completely honest with them throughout the process. It never felt transactional, more like a true partnership and an extension of my team. They worked at my pace, in my style, without ever making me feel managed. Ultimately, they found someone with the right capabilities and a genuine fit for our business and culture. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with them again.

What excited me about this role was joining a business that is already performing strongly, yet has significant untapped opportunity to build a truly multi-channel, world-class customer engine across attraction, retention, and experience. The opportunity to better connect brand, data, digital and loyalty, and to do so at an international scale, felt like a natural next chapter, particularly given the parallels with what I’ve built previously in the US. This was my first move into tailor-made travel and into a private equity-backed environment. Imogen was instrumental in bringing both the sector and the ownership context to life. The process happened quickly, but Imogen guided me through it with clarity and confidence, including helping to prepare me for each stage of the process with the right context for interviews with the leadership team and investors. Ultimately, she helped me feel genuinely ready to make the step.

Group of businesswomen sitting at desk and having business meeting. Teamwork in a modern office.

Rebuilding the Customer Engine for a Premium Travel Brand

Placing a CTO to drive innovation across multi-sector, family-owned group

Appointing a new CIDO to lead the next phase of PE-backed transformation

Finding the perfect successor for a Hong Kong restaurant leader

Strategic search secures top talent for luxury cruise line in Asia Pacific

Building a Board with Vision and Diversity

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Consumer executive executive search across every business context

The ownership structure of a consumer business shapes the brief entirely. A PE-backed brand growing towards exit needs different leadership to a listed FMCG business managing shareholder expectations, and both are different from a family-owned retailer professionalising its management team for the first time. We work across all of them.

Private equity moves fast and expects consumer leaders who move with it. We support Operating Partners, portfolio management teams and investors from initial platform build through transformation and on to exit. Our understanding of the consumer sector executive search landscape in PE — the value creation agenda, the 100-day priority, the exit profile — means we can find candidates who know what PE ownership means in practice, not just in theory. We also place interim commercial and operational leaders for PE-backed consumer businesses that need impact immediately.

Publicly listed consumer businesses face a distinct set of leadership demands: investor relations, regulatory compliance, ESG scrutiny, and the pressure of quarterly reporting alongside the operational reality of running a consumer brand. We understand which consumer executives are genuinely ready for that environment, and which are not, and we will not put forward candidates who are not equipped for the scrutiny that comes with a listed role.

Family-led consumer businesses often carry unique complexity: the interplay between family governance and professional management, succession dynamics and the need to bring in external leadership without disrupting the culture that made the business what it is. We have placed executives into some of the UK’s most respected family-owned consumer brands, and we understand the sensitivity that those searches require.

Rapid-growth consumer brands need a different kind of executive. Someone commercially aggressive, operationally hands-on and capable of building infrastructure and process while continuing to grow the brand. Whether you are a Series B brand looking for your first professional CEO or an established DTC business needing a CFO ahead of a raise, we can identify and engage the right person.

FAQs

1. Which consumer roles do you recruit?

We recruit CEO, MD, CFO, COO, CMO, CCO, CRO, CPO, CDO and CTO level roles, along with senior functional directors across marketing, commercial, ecommerce, supply chain and people functions. We also support interim appointments across all of these roles and board-level appointments including NEDs and Chairs with consumer sector experience. If your requirement sits outside this list, contact us and we will be direct about whether we can help.

2. How long does a consumer executive search take?

Most CFO executive searches conclude within eight to twelve weeks from brief to accepted offer, though this varies by complexity, sector and market conditions. We will give you a realistic timeline at the outset and update you regularly throughout. If pace is critical – as it often is – tell us at the start and we will structure the search accordingly.

3. Which consumer sectors do you cover?

Our consumer sector executive search practice covers consumer goods, FMCG, retail (food, non-food and specialist), leisure, travel, hospitality, luxury, premium beauty, entertainment, media and direct-to-consumer and eCommerce businesses. CMO executive search is one of our most active consumer briefs, and we work across UK, European and international markets. If you are unsure whether your business falls within our scope, get in touch, the answer is almost certainly yes.

4. Do you support PE-backed consumer brands?

Yes — it is a core part of our practice. We work with sponsors, Operating Partners and portfolio management teams at every stage of the investment lifecycle. We understand the consumer sector executive search demands of PE ownership, pace, value creation focus, exit readiness, and we are direct with candidates about what PE-backed roles require. We also place interim consumer leaders for PE-backed businesses that need impact immediately.

5. How do you assess consumer leadership capability?

We assess commercial impact, brand and customer understanding, operational credibility, leadership track record and cultural fit, all evaluated against your specific brief by a partner, not a junior consultant with a competency framework. We look for evidence of actual performance in consumer businesses, not just seniority of title. Every shortlisted candidate has been interviewed and assessed before you see their name.

6. What makes Redgrave the right Consumer executive search firm for us?

Our consumer practice is one of the most established in UK executive search, with specialists operating across the full consumer spectrum from FMCG and retail through to leisure, hospitality, luxury, beauty, entertainment and direct-to-consumer. That breadth, combined with deep sub-sector expertise, enables us to move across the market without restricting your brief to a single category. Our partner-led model means genuine seniority throughout the process, not just at the introductory meeting. And our directness means you will always know where your search stands and why.