While we are a bakery and food company at our core, O&H operates a diverse, multichannel business serving customers through retail, ecommerce/mail order, and wholesale. We view operational excellence, continuous improvement, and customer experience as key differentiators in sustaining our reputation as a top-tier provider of scratch-made, high-quality Danish bakery products.
We are seeking a hands-on, values-driven leader who thrives in a fast-growing, family-owned environment-someone who can build and develop teams, strengthen collaboration across functions, and deliver outstanding results. As part of a 76-year legacy built on craftsmanship and care, this role offers the opportunity to help lead O&H into its next era of growth, innovation, and operational excellence.
The COO is the operational and cultural leader responsible for driving the company's results from a people, process, and financial perspective. This role ensures O&H delivers on its strategic vision by harmonizing the leadership team, running the day-to-day business, and instilling a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. The COO oversees all operational, retail, financial, customer, and growth functions, leading a team of seven direct reports (Director of Human Resources, Financial Controller, Director of Retail Stores, Director of Baking Operations, Director of IT, Director of Fulfillment Operations, and VP Sales & Marketing).
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Key Accountabilities
Runs the day-to-day business: Drive execution across all departments and ensure operational excellence in every channel.
Drives accountability: Establish clear metrics, responsibilities, and performance management across the leadership team.
Harmonizes the leadership team: Build trust, alignment, and collaboration between leaders and departments.
Prioritizes and executes the vision: Translate the company's strategic goals into short- and medium-term objectives with measurable outcomes.
Delivers P&L results: Manage budgets, forecasts, and cost control to achieve profitable growth.
Leadership, Culture & Strategy
- Lead, coach, and develop the senior leadership team; ensure "Right People, Right Seats" alignment.
- Promote O&H's family values and mission while professionalizing systems and processes for scale.
- Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and team collaboration.
- Support succession planning and leadership development at all levels.
- Serve as a bridge between ownership's vision and the leadership team's execution.
- Translate strategic priorities into annual and quarterly objectives.
- Serve as a trusted advisor to ownership, balancing legacy culture with forward-thinking execution.
- Support succession planning and leadership development at all levels.
- Strengthen current strategic company partnerships and create new business relationships with suppliers, service providers and customers.
- Collaborate with HR to develop strong talent pipelines and organizational development.
- Operational Excellence
- Oversee bakery production, warehousing, and fulfillment operations to ensure quality, safety, and efficiency.
- Develop and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure accountability and progress.
- Ensure operational readiness and scalability across all channels: wholesale, e-commerce, catalog, and retail.
- Implement systems and processes that support scale, compliance, and innovation.
- Manage operational budgets and work closely with the Controller on financial planning and cost control.
- Support store-level execution and operational consistency through scalable systems for staffing, training, merchandising, and service.
- Commercial & Customer Operations
- Ensure seamless, high-quality customer experience across retail, ecommerce, catalog, and wholesale channels.
- Partner with IT, Finance and Sales & Marketing to integrate systems and automation that improve efficiency, scalability, and visibility across the customer journey.
- Leverage data, analytics, and reporting to inform operational and commercial decision-making.
- Champion cross-departmental communication and collaboration to ensure alignment between operations, sales, marketing, and fulfillment.
- Ensure operational readiness to support new product launches, market expansion, and promotional campaigns.
- Collaborate with the VP of Sales & Marketing to align supply and demand planning, ensuring coordination between marketing initiatives, sales forecasts, and production capacity - while driving pricing discipline and margin growth across all channels.
- Maintain a close partnership with leadership to honor O&H's heritage while advancing innovation and continuous improvement.