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CPG advisory for the decisions that define the business
A raise. An acquisition offer. A pricing model that stopped working. A retailer expansion that will make or break the year. These moments don’t need more monthly bookkeeping, they need financial strategy from people who’ve done it in consumer goods. That’s what our CPG advisory work is for.
$158M+ in CPG revenue under management, in the room for the raises and the exits
The problem
A handful of moments where the financial stakes jump an order of magnitude.
Your bookkeeper can't build the diligence data room. Your gut can't price a 40-SKU line through a margin squeeze. The spreadsheet that got you here won't get you through an exit. These are high-leverage decisions with a short window: get the strategy right and you raise on better terms, sell for more, or fix the margin before it compounds. Get it wrong and it follows the business for years.
What we do
Where CPG advisory earns its keep
Senior, project-based engagements scoped to a specific moment, with a clear deliverable and a finish line.
Fundraising strategy and diligence
The model, unit economics by channel, cap-table math, and a data room that holds up, so you raise on your terms, not the fund’s. Investors in consumer brands go straight to gross-to-net, trade spend as a percent of gross, inventory turns, and contribution margin by SKU. We make sure those numbers are ready and defensible.
Exit and M&A readiness
Clean, defensible financials and the margin and cash story a buyer pays a premium for, prepared before diligence starts, not during. In CPG that means trade spend accruals that reconcile, inventory a buyer can count and cost, deductions history by retailer, and a gross-to-net bridge that survives a quality of earnings review.
Pricing and margin overhauls
Rebuild pricing around true landed cost and contribution margin by SKU and channel when inflation, trade spend, slotting, or a new retailer changes the math. Includes the distributor margin stack, MAP and promo strategy, and the break-even velocity a new door has to hit.
Working capital and turnaround
When cash is tight, a clear-eyed plan for the cash conversion cycle: inventory buys and MOQs, co-packer deposits, Net 60 receivables, vendor terms, and the financing options (PO, inventory, AR) that actually free up cash without giving away the company.
Systems and finance-function build-out
The right stack and processes to run a growing CPG brand: ERP and inventory system selection, a chart of accounts that separates trade spend from COGS from freight, deduction management workflow, and a close process that produces channel P&Ls on time.
Project-based, senior, done-with-you
Advisory is engagement work with a defined goal and a finish line, a raise, an exit, a pricing reset, a cleanup. Senior people, hands on the work, a clear deliverable. It sits on top of clean CPG accounting.
If what you need instead is an ongoing financial leader in the seat month over month, that’s our fractional CFO for CPG work, and many brands use both.
Who it's for
Founder-led consumer brands facing a defining financial moment.
A round, an offer, an expansion, or a reset. Any stage where the decision is bigger than the day-to-day. Thryve is based in McKinney, Texas, and runs advisory engagements for consumer brands nationwide.
Exit and investor readiness
What a buyer or investor tests in CPG books
Consumer brand diligence has a pattern. The same six or seven questions decide whether the number holds or gets renegotiated. Advisory work is getting the answers ready before anyone asks.
Revenue quality
Gross-to-net by retailer and by year. Trade spend as a percent of gross and whether it is accrued when the promotion runs or recorded when the deduction arrives. Customer concentration. Velocity trends by door. A buyer rebuilds every one of these from your data; if the rebuild does not match your P&L, the price moves.
Margin and working capital
Landed COGS by SKU including freight, duties, and co-packer tolling. Inventory that can be counted, aged, and costed across every 3PL and warehouse. Days of inventory, days to collect, and days to pay, and how much working capital growth consumes. Clean answers here shrink escrow, shorten diligence, and keep the multiple where the LOI put it.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Advisory is project-based, a defined engagement around a specific moment like a raise, an exit, or a pricing overhaul, with a clear deliverable and a finish line. A fractional CFO is an ongoing financial leader embedded in the business month over month. Many brands use both.
Yes, fundraising strategy, diligence data rooms, exit readiness, and the financial narrative buyers and investors expect are core advisory engagements.
Yes. Rebuilding pricing around true landed cost and contribution margin by SKU and channel is one of the most common advisory projects we run.
Margin work starts with gross-to-net. We break it down line by line in What Is Gross-to-Net in CPG? The Waterfall, Line by Line.
We scope to the goal and the timeline. A consultation is the fastest way to define the work and get a real number.
It means the books answer the questions a buyer asks before they ask them: a gross-to-net bridge by retailer, trade spend that reconciles to deductions, inventory that counts and costs cleanly across co-packers and 3PLs, and a working capital history that supports the peg. We typically start twelve to twenty-four months ahead of a sale.
Yes. Thryve is based in McKinney, Texas, in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and most advisory clients are elsewhere in the country. Engagements run remotely with a defined scope, deliverable, and timeline.
Got a defining moment coming up? Let's get the strategy right.
Book a free consultation and we'll scope the engagement to the decision in front of you.