Chief Operating Officer hos Swedish Nutra i Malmö

What you'll own

As COO, you will be responsible for the full company P&L and all approximately 30 staff, leading through the management layer. Your mandate will grow in defined phases, ultimately encompassing all day-to-day responsibilities currently held by the CEO.

This includes:

Day-to-day leadership of the company: Full P&L ownership and leadership of all staff through the management team.

The management team: Building and leading the Production Manager, Head of Sales, and Marketing Manager (searches currently in motion), and completing the team with key-account and e-commerce hires. Final say on management-level appointments remains with the owners.

Production: Setting targets and holding the Production Manager accountable for output, quality, supply, and cost.

The technical spine: Ensuring quality assurance and regulatory compliance across all export markets, maintaining GMP/HACCP certification, overseeing the product development pipeline, and managing inventory and supply end-to-end through a monthly S&OP rhythm.

The commercial engine: Guiding the Head of Sales and Marketing Manager to execute the retail and DTC agenda set with the CEO, including expanding from exclusive-distributor coverage to include direct retail relationships.

DTC and marketplace channels: Overseeing Amazon EU/UK through an accountable Amazon specialist, and the US Amazon/Shopify/DTC business, with investment pace agreed with the CEO.

Systems and process: Transforming ad-hoc, founder-held execution into documented, repeatable processes and stage-appropriate tooling, and extracting institutional knowledge into the organization through SOPs.

The people function during ramp-up: Managing performance, development, and hiring below management level, with in-house recruitment support, until a dedicated HR lead is justified.

The automation agenda: Supporting automation across the business, ensuring new processes across every department are designed to be automation-ready.

The operating rhythm: Establishing KPIs, budgets, forecasting, cash-flow discipline, running weekly management meetings, and providing monthly reporting to the owners.

Non-negotiable requirements:

Experience

10+ years of experience, with genuine general management, including owning a full P&L (company, subsidiary, or business unit) and leading a team of managers. You are a leader of leaders, not a strong functional specialist stepping up for the first time.

Operational Expertise: Real operating experience in a regulated product category (GMP, HACCP, pharma, food, nutraceutical/supplement, or comparable), spanning quality and regulatory, product development, and inventory/supply. You must be able to own these functions, carry quality and regulatory risk, and act as a credible sparring partner to the Production Manager.

Scale-up Temperament: Comfortable building structure from thin processes in a founder-led company with approximately 200M SEK revenue.

Commercial Literacy: Understands brand, channel economics, and trade terms well enough to direct a retail expansion.

Motivation: Motivated by operational ownership; you want to run the day-to-day of a profitable company end-to-end and build the machine, not occupy a caretaker or chief-of-staff seat.

Strong preferences:

FMCG background: consumer health, VMS/supplements, personal care, or functional food.

Experience in liquid, food, or beverage manufacturing environments.

Direct experience with European drug and health retail (dm, Rossmann, Holland & Barrett, Boots) and their buying processes.

Existing relationships with target retail banners.

AI-forward: has used AI and automation to build a leaner operation, or is visibly motivated to, and able to bring a team along with it.

Practical details

Apply by clicking the link and submitting your resume, including your cover letter in the same document (one file for CV and cover letter).

Start date

as soon as possible.

Workplace: Swedish Nutra AB, Lodgatan 19, 211 24 Malmö.