What should a CPG product launch checklist include?

A comprehensive CPG launch checklist should cover: cost modeling and landed cost analysis, demand planning and S&OP setup, co-manufacturer selection and production scheduling, procurement and supplier readiness, 3PL and fulfillment setup, retailer and EDI compliance, inventory allocation and lot tracking, labeling and regulatory compliance, and a post-launch review framework.

How far in advance should I start planning operations for a product launch?

For a retail launch, most brands should start operational planning at least 16-20 weeks out. For DTC-only launches, 10-12 weeks is workable if your supply chain is simple. Co-packer onboarding, label approvals, 3PL setup, and EDI integration each carry their own lead times that can't be compressed.

What is landed cost and how do I calculate it for my CPG product?

Landed cost is the fully-loaded cost to get your product to a customer. It includes COGS (ingredients + packaging + co-man fees), inbound freight, warehousing, and outbound freight. Calculate it by adding all of those inputs at your expected production volume, then divide by total units. That's your per-unit landed cost.

How do I choose the right co-packer for my first production run?

Evaluate co-packers on: relevant format experience, MOQ alignment with your launch volume, first-run timeline realism, quality systems (SQF, GFSI, etc.), and reference checks with other brands at your scale. Don't choose based on price alone. The cheapest co-packer that can't hit your launch window costs you more than a slightly more expensive one that ships on time.

What are the most common operations mistakes CPG brands make at launch?

The biggest ones: starting co-packer conversations too late, underestimating first-run timelines, not having 3PL setup tested before launch inventory arrives, building a forecast with no scenario planning, and treating labeling compliance as a last-minute task.

Do I need EDI setup before launching into retail?

Most major retail accounts require EDI compliance. Some regional accounts will work with a vendor portal instead. Check your specific buyer's requirements during the onboarding process, well before your expected ship date.

How do I avoid chargebacks when launching a new SKU with a retailer?

Read your retailer's routing guide in detail and brief your logistics team before the first shipment. Confirm OTIF requirements, labeling specs, and appointment scheduling procedures. The majority of first-time chargebacks come from routing guide non-compliance, not product quality issues.

Should I start with a fractional operations team or a full-time ops hire?

A full-time hire gives you dedicated internal capacity but comes with a significant compensation commitment, typically $175k-$200k+ in base salary plus benefits and ramp time. A fractional ops team like Bravo CPG gives you senior-level execution and accountability at a lower monthly cost, with faster onboarding and no long-term headcount commitment. For brands in the $1M-$20M range still building their operational foundation, fractional is often the more practical path.

What Really Changes When a CPG Brand Scales From $5M to $15M

Thought Leadership

Mar 9

Written By Josh Leider

A lot of founders think the jump from $5 million to $15 million is just more of the same. More orders. More revenue. Maybe a few more people.

If only that were the case!

At $5 million, you’re running hard but the machine is still relatively simple. You likely have a core set of SKUs, a handful of channels, and a small team that all sits on the same call. Everyone knows what’s happening. Everyone feels the fires in real time.

At $15 million, the business doesn’t just get bigger. It gets more complex. And complexity, not volume, is what changes everything.

Your Supply Chain Stops Being a Chain

In the early days, the supply chain is usually pretty linear. You make product. You move it through one or two channels. Maybe it’s Amazon plus a few retailers like Target, Whole Foods, or Sprouts. It’s manageable.

As you scale, complexity creeps in fast.

You add SKUs. You expand into new retailers. You layer on distributors. You introduce more co-mans. You plug into more systems. What used to be a clean line from production to customer turns into a web of stakeholders and dependencies. More customers. More order types. More routing guides. More packaging variations. More things that can go wrong

At $15 million, you’re not just shipping more cases. You’re coordinating a network.

And that’s when your early tools start to break.

QuickBooks and Google Sheets Start Showing Their Limits

Plenty of brands bootstrap their way to $5 million using QuickBooks and well-built Google Sheets. And honestly, if you’re sharp, you can get pretty far with those tools.

But somewhere in that $5 to $15 million range, the cracks may start to show.

Inventory becomes harder to reconcile across channels. Forecasting gets more complex because you’re juggling more SKUs, more velocity patterns, and more stakeholders. Wholesale, Amazon, and DTC all behave differently. Chargebacks start to matter. Lead times get tighter.

You can still build clever spreadsheets. But you can spend more time maintaining the system than running the business.

That’s usually the inflection point where founders realize systems need to evolve. Not because they love software. Because the manual work is eating the team alive and isn’t scalable.

Execution Pressure Multiplies

Execution always matters. It matters at $2 million. It matters at $15 million. But at $15 million, you have more stakeholders to please and less margin for error.

Retailers expect tighter fill rates. Distributors expect cleaner documentation. Amazon doesn’t tolerate sloppy prep. Consumers expect fast, clean, consistent fulfillment. Logistics has become part of the product experience. Amazon set the standard, and now everyone lives in that world.

You can’t just “figure it out” on the fly anymore.

At $5 million, a late shipment might cause a tense call. At $15 million, it can cascade into missed resets, lost shelf space, or real financial consequences.

The bar quietly gets higher as you scale.

Leadership Becomes the Job

One of the biggest shifts isn’t operational. It’s organizational.

At $5 million, you’re scrappy. Everyone knows everything. Communication is informal. You don’t need layers.

By $15 million, that usually starts to change.

You likely have more contractors or full-time team members. Information flows differently. Leadership meetings become separate from team-wide meetings. Direction gets set at the top and cascades down.

That means leaders spend more time leading.

Setting mission, vision, and clear company-level priorities starts to matter in a way it didn’t before. You can’t rely on everyone overhearing the same conversation. Alignment has to be intentional.

If you don’t evolve here, friction creeps in. Teams feel stretched. Initiatives stall. Good people burn out.

Ready to plug in a best-in-class ops team?

Bravo CPG is the #1 fractional operations firm for growing CPG brands.

Learn More ->

The Founder’s Role Has to Shift

This is the hard one. Between $5 million and $15 million, the founder’s role in operations needs to change.

If the founder is the CEO, they can’t stay in the weeds forever. At some point, the company needs a right hand who can execute the CEO’s vision day to day. Someone who owns the operational engine so the founder can focus on growth, fundraising, strategy, and external relationships.

That shift doesn’t always happen cleanly.

Some founders hold on too long. They stay buried in purchase orders and freight quotes while investor conversations slip. Others delegate too quickly without installing experienced leadership and chaos follows.

The brands that navigate this well are intentional. They recognize that scaling requires a different posture. The founder becomes more outward-looking. Operations leadership becomes more experienced and accountable.

The Real Cost of “We’ll Figure It Out”

A common thread I see in this stage is operators learning on the job.

Early in your career, that’s normal. You teach yourself. You move fast. You patch systems together and solve problems in real time.

But the longer you operate, the more you realize how expensive and slow that approach was.

What took two or three years to figure out early on, an experienced operator can now solve in two or three weeks.

Figuring it out on the fly costs time. Time costs money. And at scale, it can cost people. Teams burn out when every quarter feels like an experiment.

That doesn’t mean you need perfection. It means you need experience guiding the complexity.

Why Some Brands Break Through

When brands successfully move through that $15 million mark, it rarely happens because their operations are brilliant.

It usually comes back to product market fit. If the product resonates, growth feels like momentum, not friction. Revenue comes with less force, investors lean in and there’s room to absorb mistakes.

Operations’ job at that stage is simple, at least philosophically.

Keep a clean sheet.

Meet the forecast

Deliver product on time.
Protect quality.
Keep it safe.
Don’t be the reason momentum slows.

Operations won’t create product market fit. But it can absolutely destroy it if execution falters.

And in today’s world, logistics and fulfillment are part of the product experience. Consumers expect speed. Retailers expect reliability. Quality is table stakes. Execution is credibility.

The Takeaway

Scaling from $5 million to $15 million isn’t about doing more of what worked before. It’s about managing complexity without losing focus.

Your systems need to mature. Your leadership needs to evolve. The founder’s role needs to shift. And experience starts to compound in a way that saves you real time and real money.

Growth exposes everything. The question is whether your operations evolve with it.

Need Operations Help?

At Bravo CPG, we step in during exactly this stage. We operate as an embedded operations team for growth-stage food, beverage, beauty, and wellness brands. We combine hands-on execution with senior-level ownership, taking responsibility for production, co-man and 3PL management, demand planning, wholesale orders, freight, and more. Our goal is simple: help brands scale profitably without operational chaos.

Josh Leider