AP&G Co, Inc. | Right Recruiting Facts
Partnership
10 + year partnership with growing manufacturing firm.
New Positions
Recruitment for newly created positions.
Long Term Planning
Effectively completed projects during a period of significant growth.
The Client:
Right Recruiting has had a lot of fun working with AP&G over the years and we have grown to both know and respect their owners. It’s been an interesting ride for them and for us as well. The journey continues to this day.
When we first started working with AP&G/Catchmaster it was 2009 and they were a growing 40 person CPG firm with manufacturing and headquarters located in Brooklyn. They had just developed and released products under their own brand name and those brands were gaining traction. That created an opportunity and that also created a challenge.
The Challenge:
Our first project was a tough one. Find a Plant Manager who could:
1) Improve a small, homegrown manufacturing function of about 20 people
2) Help ownership identify a location for an eventual move to a larger site
3) Manage the transition
4) It would be nice if the person could speak Spanish too
We needed someone with good hands-on skills in production and the ability to manage multi-million dollar projects. Basically, a Production Supervisor who could also design and build a new manufacturing plant. Not many of them floating around Brooklyn.
The Solution:
Candidly, that project was tough, but we successfully identified someone who checked off all of the boxes and got them into a 300,000 square foot plant and headquarters, the same location they are in now. The difference between before (old, dark industrial space in Brooklyn) and now (new, efficient manufacturing and offices that look like Google’s) is stunning. So is the size of the workforce, 180 people and growing. It’s a different company now.
Since then, here is what we’ve been able to fill multiple newly created positions:
- The first Director of HR
- The first Director of Marketing
- The first Director of Operations
- Sales Manager
- Multiple professional level roles
We’ve treated each of these roles as if they were the most important job in the world. That’s what we try to do with every client. We’ve found that companies like AP&G, those that meaningfully invest in their employees and who actually care about them on a personal level, are very unique. They invest as much time as we need in discussing the opening and in evaluating candidates. When we are in the middle of a project for them, we usually talk daily to chart progress and avoid problems.
Does that sound normal to you? Honestly, it’s not. If you are reading all of this, my guess is that you also work at a company that is serious about culture and people. In my experience, not every is like that. Many talk the talk but few walk the walk.
We’ve run into situations where we just get an email from a potential client that has a generic, vanilla job description and a two year old salary range. The email asks us to send resumes of people who are “active.” When we try to schedule a phone call to discuss details about the company and job and maybe learn something, crickets.
Sadly, there are still employers who think it’s 2009 and a 9% unemployment rate and that people are lined up to work for them. Don’t be like them.
