Operations leadership for DTC and supply chain · Advisory · Execution · Search
At most scaling brands nobody owns it. The 3PL contract auto renews, the carrier mix has not been re bid in three years, the network decision keeps getting deferred, and the senior hire that would fix all of it never quite gets made. ReifCo is a sitting operator you can put on any of that, starting now.
Run by a senior operations executive currently in the seat at a scaling DTC apparel brand. Not a former operator. Not a firm.
The problem
Nobody in the building is paid to know whether your operation is being run well.
Your finance lead sees the invoice total. Your 3PL account manager is paid by the 3PL. Your CX lead knows when packages are late but not what a late package costs you. The person who could tell you whether you are being charged correctly, whether the carrier mix is right, whether the network decision in front of you is the right one, and whether the contract you signed two years ago still reflects your volume, does not work at your company.
That is the person most brands cannot justify hiring until it is already expensive. A VP of Operations who has actually run networks costs real money, takes months to find, and is the single easiest senior hire to get wrong. Meanwhile the decisions keep arriving.
ReifCo solves that three ways. We put that person in the room on a fraction of a schedule, we run the hard moves ourselves when execution is the risk, and when you are ready to make the hire permanent we run the search for it. Same operator, same standard, whichever door you come through.
What we do
The list is short on purpose. These are the areas where twenty five years in the operation produces an answer you could not get from a generalist.
3PL invoices rebuilt against the agreement, accessorial and storage exposure quantified, cost to serve reconstructed from the line item up. The output is a priced and ranked list of what to fix, not a deck.
Rate card teardowns, zone and weight profile analysis, regional carrier mix, GRI impact modelling, and re bids run with data the carriers cannot argue with.
3PL exit and RFP, site and partner selection, in house build cases, and WMS evaluation carried through go live. This is the phase where most brands lose a quarter to a bad cutover.
The judgment of a VP of Operations on a fraction of a schedule. Vendor accountability, network decisions, org design, and the calls a senior operator would own, held continuously.
When the answer is a permanent hire rather than a fractional one, we run the search. Operator led, fixed fee rather than a percentage of your offer, and a short slate with the weaknesses written down. See how it works.
Operational due diligence alongside quality of earnings work, 100 day value creation plans, and interim ops leadership inside a portfolio company. Same operator, earlier in the deal.
Where it hurts
Brands tend to arrive here at one of six moments. Each one has a defined scope, a defined timeline, and a defined answer.
Situation 01
Line items you cannot tie back to the contract, accessorials nobody explained, storage charges that moved without notice. We rebuild the invoice against the agreement and tell you what you are actually owed back.
2 to 3 weeksSituation 02
Cost to serve rebuilt from the invoice level, carrier mix analyzed against your real zone and weight profile, and a re bid run with data the carriers cannot argue with.
3 to 6 weeksSituation 03
A costed, timeline mapped build case against staying outsourced, including the capital, the headcount, and the failure modes. Sometimes the honest answer is stay. The analysis alone usually improves your 3PL rate.
4 to 6 weeksSituation 04
3PL exit and RFP, site or partner selection, WMS evaluation carried through go live, and transition management. This is the phase where most brands lose a quarter of revenue to a bad cutover.
3 to 9 monthsSituation 05
Fractional COO. Weekly presence, vendor accountability, network decisions, hiring and org design, and the calls a VP of Operations would own, at a fraction of the cost of one.
Monthly retainerSituation 06
Operator led search for the VP or Director seat. A scorecard agreed before anyone is sourced, a direct approach to people already doing the job well, and five scored candidates with the weaknesses written down.
Fixed fee searchEngagement models
Fixed scope project
A defined piece of work with a defined deliverable. Most brands start here because it is the cheapest way to find out whether we are worth more.
2 to 6 weeks. Flat fee.
Managed transition
When the decision is made and the execution is the risk. We manage the RFP, the selection, the cutover, and the vendor relationships through stabilization.
3 to 9 months. Project fee.
Fractional COO
Ongoing senior ops leadership without the full time hire. For brands that need the judgment continuously but cannot yet justify the salary.
Monthly retainer. Rolling.
A fourth door opens when the answer is a permanent hire rather than a fractional one. Leadership search is priced as a fixed fee rather than a percentage of first year compensation, and runs on the same standard as the advisory work.
How we work
Step 01
Thirty minutes. Bring your last three 3PL invoices and your cost per order. You leave with two or three things worth fixing first whether or not we work together.
Step 02
Two to three weeks inside the numbers. Invoices rebuilt against contracts, cost to serve reconstructed, carrier mix tested. Output is a priced and ranked list, not a slide deck.
Step 03
We run the fixes rather than hand them over. Renegotiations opened, RFPs managed, cutovers planned. You are in the room for every vendor conversation.
Step 04
The engagement ends when permanent capacity exists, whether that is hired, promoted, or trained. We design ourselves out on purpose.
If you want an advisor who stays forever, we are the wrong shop. The point of a fractional operator is to become unnecessary, and the retainer clients who stay do so because new work appeared, not because the old work never closed.
Results
Not modeled savings. Outcomes from work performed as an operator or as an engaged advisor.
$600K
Annualized savings from renegotiated 3PL agreements. The leverage came from having the in house alternative fully costed and timeline mapped before the negotiation opened. The 3PL had to believe we would leave.
DTC apparel · 3PL renegotiation
$1.7M
Under budget on an in house fulfillment build, a 38 percent reduction against the approved capital plan. Delivered, operating, and carrying volume.
DTC apparel · Network build
$400K
Annual shipping cost reduction identified through carrier mix analysis and 3PL contract review. Findings delivered inside 60 days.
$25M DTC apparel · 60 days
$380K
Annual savings surfaced in a single audit, across 3PL overbilling, redundant vendor contracts, and inventory carrying cost. One engagement, three separate leaks.
Advisory · Single audit
22%
Cost per order reduction identified in a fulfillment process analysis, findings and recommendations delivered in three weeks.
$15M subscription DTC · 3 weeks
2×
WMS selections carried from evaluation through go live, which is the phase where most implementations quietly fail. Selection is the easy half.
Enterprise · WMS through go live
Figures reflect savings identified, contracted, or realized within the stated engagement. Client names disclosed where permitted. Full references and engagement detail available on request.
Reference
He delivered thoughtful WMS assessments, practical racking and facility planning guidance, and strong operational cost analysis that helped inform several fulfillment bids.
Chun FungSVP, AGS Logistics
WMS and warehousing engagement
Also on record
The 3PL renegotiation and in house build above were covered in the inaugural edition of CrossDock Insights' operator interview series, conducted by the founder of Hopstack WMS.
The principal
David Reifschneider has spent more than two decades running operations rather than advising on them. Amazon, Walmart eCommerce, Blue Apron, Stitch Fix, Zulily, and Grove Collaborative. Fulfillment centers, P&L ownership, network builds, vendor negotiations, and the calls that decide whether a scaling brand holds together.
He is currently a senior operations executive at a scaling DTC apparel brand, which means every recommendation is grounded in what is working in the market this quarter rather than what worked at a previous employer a decade ago.
That is also the constraint worth naming up front. ReifCo takes a limited number of engagements because the principal does the work. If the calendar does not support your timeline you will hear that on the first call rather than in the third week.
Straight answers
Fixed scope projects are quoted flat against the deliverable. Fractional retainers are priced against a defined number of days per month. As a frame, a fractional arrangement typically runs well below the loaded cost of a full time VP of Operations at the same seniority, which is the entire reason the model exists. Exact numbers come on the first call once the scope is real, because quoting before that would be guessing.
Consultants deliver findings and leave. We open the renegotiation, sit on the RFP calls, and stay through the cutover. The measure of the work is what changed on your P&L, not what was in the deliverable.
It is worse in one way and better in three. Worse: you do not get someone there every day. Better: you get more seniority than the salary would buy, you get it in weeks instead of a six month search, and if it is not working you stop, which is considerably cheaper than a bad executive hire.
Yes, and that is deliberate rather than a compromise. Being in an operating seat is what keeps the advice current, and it is why the engagement list is short. If the calendar cannot support your timeline you will hear that on the first call rather than in the third week.
Same business, same operator, different door. When a brand outgrows the fractional arrangement the honest next step is a permanent hire, and that hire is the single easiest senior appointment to get wrong. Rather than hand you to a search firm that has never held the seat, we run it: fixed fee instead of a percentage of your offer, a scorecard agreed before sourcing, and five scored candidates rather than fifty resumes. It is a small number of searches a year, in this function only. The full method is here.
Roughly five to seventy five million in revenue, where fulfillment cost has become a real line on the P&L but a senior operations hire is still hard to justify. Smaller and the spend does not support the work. Much larger and you should be hiring, and we are happy to help you scope that role.
For investors
Consumer PE and venture firms engage ReifCo for operational due diligence alongside quality of earnings work, 100 day value creation plans, and interim ops leadership at a portfolio company.
Free every Monday
A weekly digest on freight, carrier capacity, tariffs, 3PL pricing, and DTC margin. Real sources, dollar aware reads, and a clear "so what" on every item.
Next step
Bring your last three 3PL invoices and your cost per order. You will leave the call with the two or three things worth fixing first, or with an honest read that your operation is not where your margin problem lives.