Chief Operating Officer (COO)

About Swedish Nutra

Swedish Nutra is a Malmö-based family company and one of the Nordics’ leading manufacturers of premium liquid vitamins and nutritional supplements. We offer private label/white label production and are the makers of the Swedish Collagen and Swedish Nutra brands, sold in over 37 countries worldwide. We’re a fast-growing business with global distribution, a warm and international team, and an enterprising environment where people get real room to develop and grow.

About the role

We are seeking a Chief Operating Officer (COO) to take over the day-to-day leadership of Swedish Nutra. This is a pivotal role designed to free our founder-CEO to focus on growth, while you build and lead the operational engine that will scale our business. You will be the number-one on-site point of contact for the entire team, working full-time from our Malmö headquarters.

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.

What we're looking for

We are seeking a proven general manager with real operational depth and a scale-up temperament. While few candidates will be equally strong across all areas, we prioritize in this order: proven general management, depth across quality, regulatory, product development, and supply, and hands-on commercial-growth experience. Running a factory is not required, as production has its own dedicated leader.

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.
• Location: Full-time on-site in Malmö. This is not a hybrid or remote role. Candidates must be based in the Öresund region.
• Language: Fluent English is a requirement for this role (our working language; the team is international). Swedish is not required.

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.