OUR STORY

Entrepreneurs are a rare breed. They are passionate about what they believe and relentless in making their dreams come true. But often, they cannot do it alone. Like all of us, they are strong in many areas, but weak in others. There are hundreds of build-a-brand and R&D firms to help you get a delicious product that people want to buy, but very few who understand how to make it safely, consistently, and on-time. 

FoodOps was born in 2016 after recognizing the need for an effective fractional operations consulting firm for small and growing CPG companies. Our founder Jim Costello was the VP of Operations at Angie’s Boomchicka Pop during their exponential growth phase. He oversaw manufacturing for Angie’s when their revenues were $1M, $80M, and everywhere in between. 

Jim quickly enlisted John Castillo - a manufacturing and leadership expert - to be his business partner. As FoodOps took on more clients and outgrew the two of them, they recruited talent from Angie’s, Post Consumer Brands, General Mills, 3M, Cargill, PURIS, and Ecolab. Our team appreciates the tools and structure of big companies, but thrive in fast-paced environments - like yours. 

With our combined experience in all types of manufacturing settings, we developed tools that accomplish the same objective as these big-box companies. Now we deploy them for you on a smaller and personalized scale. You don’t have the time or money to implement an ERP system, but you are interested in tracking inventory of finished goods, ingredients, and packaging materials as they pertain to your sales forecast. We have a simple Google-based tool for this. 

We also have tools for tracking sensory attributes, overseeing production, and scheduling. We have templates for nearly any food safety procedure, product specs, and more. When it comes time to select or change a co-manufacturer, we can help you find the right partner and navigate the manufacturing agreement. In a nutshell, we act as your part-time COO. 

As a fractional piece of your leadership team, we also help your company stay focused. Time and resources are precious, so we facilitate L10 meetings based on Gino Wickman’s Entrepreneur Operating System. By taking time each quarter to reassess company priorities and leading weekly meetings to hold the leadership team accountable, our clients tackle the right problems swiftly and effectively. The outcome is traction, progress, and profit. 

We want to be part of your team. We want to contribute our blood, sweat, and tears to the pool. Everyone at FoodOps loves the energy of small CPG companies and takes pride in seeing our collective work on the grocery store shelves. All entrepreneurs have passion, but our job is to help you translate your passion into purpose.

Jim is now enjoying his retirement, but remains a trusted advisor to our team. As part of this transition, John brought Asa Bielenberg as a partner to provide youthful vision and an engineering mindset to FoodOps. Our values are reflected in any interaction we have with you - no matter what stage your company is in. Our objective is to help everyone in the ecosphere - CPG companies, food manufacturers, and investors - thrive.