Case Study: VP of Operations for a Leading Montreal-based Food Manufacturer

About our Client

Our client is a Montreal-based leading manufacturer of high quality ready-to-cook meat products.

We spoke to their CFO and HR Lead to offer our recruitment solutions upon which we were retained as the company's recruitment specialist to search for a replacement for their VP of Operations. Our Account Lead then met with the CFO and HR Lead to get a comprehensive brief on the experience, skills, and any other requirements.

Our Client’s Requirement 

Overarching goal for the client was to find a replacement for their VP Of Operations. Our client was looking for an individual who: 

• Had a track record of delivering operational excellence within the food industry and building high performing teams 
• Could oversee all manufacturing operations from production to supply chain 
• Was bilingual and located near the head office and manufacturing plant to work out of 

Outside of the candidate brief and requirements, another need for the client was to use a recruitment expert to discreetly replace the existing VP of Operations.  

Our Solution

We spoke to the organization’s CFO and HR Lead to offer our recruitment solutions. The organization decided to partner with us and use Michael Page as the company's recruitment specialist to search for the replacement for their VP of Operations due to our expert recruitment skills and knowledge of candidate placement in the industry. 

Our Account Lead arranged a call with the CFO and HR Lead to get a comprehensive brief on the experience, skills, and any other requirements for the role. Using this information, our team leveraged advertising platforms such as our website, LinkedIn, and other paid media partnerships to begin our search for candidates, specifically targeting former VPs and COOs within Quebec whose skills matched the brief the client had given us. To ensure we were offering the best candidates, we also widened our pool of potential candidates by targeting individuals based in the US or Europe who would consider moving to Quebec.

Our extensive and expanded outreach helped us identify candidates whose technical expertise matched the job description. Within three weeks of launching our search, our consultants shortlisted the most suitable candidates and carried out virtual calls to assess how they would culturally fit within the organization before sending five quality candidates to the client. 

The CFO and HR Lead were keen on one of the profiles, so the Michael Page consultant facilitated scheduling the interviews between the candidate and the CFO, followed by the CEO, and a final round with the CEO of the owning company – all within a span of two weeks.

Results

The candidate we put forward for interview was successful and we advised our client to make a strong first offer as the candidate’s current company had made counteroffers to retain him. Taking our advice, the client made a compelling offer – a combination of an attractive remuneration package and an appealing career challenge which the role presented – to which the candidate accepted. After almost a year as the VP of Operations, he has earned the CEO’s trust and established himself as a trusted leader to his manufacturing operations team.