Rough Road Partners™ | Operating and Advisory Services

Selected Outcomes

The problem, the work, the result.

Food & CPG · Commercialization and manufacturing scale-up

The product had to eat like a real donut. Bakery equipment was never designed to make it.

Problem: A high-protein, low-carbohydrate food company was moving off co-manufacturers and into its own plant while trying to commercialize a product that had to taste and eat like the real thing rather than a protein bar in another shape. The original dough kept failing on texture and calorie targets, and conventional equipment could not run it.
The work: Reframed the problem instead of iterating on the dough: took a cake formulation developed earlier for an entirely different product, formed it as a donut and fried it. It worked. From there, worked hands-on with the founder and his team across formulation, process, production equipment and packaging to re-engineer the line for commercial scale.

~8 moEmpty building to commercial production

7Flavors developed

4Selling, with three more scheduled

The donuts were the first products made in the new plant.

Aerospace · PE-backed turnaround

An acquired plant was late, failing quality, and about to lose its largest contract.

Problem: AC Tech had acquired an aerospace sealants packaging and distribution operation in Georgia. It was missing delivery dates and failing quality requirements, and the prime contractor it existed to serve was preparing to pull a major agreement.
The work: Started with the workforce rather than the process map. Upgraded basic employee facilities, introduced uniforms, promoted a difficult but widely respected employee into the plant manager role, and took the team to the customer's site to meet the operators affected by the failures. Quality and delivery stopped being abstract numbers on a board and became personal.

~6 moTo turn the operation around

+44%First-time quality

+24%Sales

+12%Margins

The at-risk contract was retained. A larger multi-year contract followed.

International · Market entry and operations build

The business needed a real operation in the Middle East, not a strategy for one.

Problem: Courtaulds Aerospace's sealants and coatings customers across the Gulf needed local technical support, inventory and regulatory approvals. Serving them from outside the region was not working.
The work: Built a purpose-designed Application Support Center in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, from a greenfield site: facility construction, staffing, training, inventory, supply chain, import and export, regulatory and customer approvals, local bureaucracy, and customer development. Full P&L and capital expenditure responsibility.

+46%Sales

+30%Customer base

−15%Costs

+26%Return on investment

Responsibility later extended across roughly 11 countries and 20 major customers.

Paul Raybould

I get called in when there is a difficult problem, something that has to be built, fixed or scaled, and a result that has to be delivered by a date. That has looked different in every industry I have worked in, but the job has always been the same one.

I have taken products from research into production, converted empty buildings into working manufacturing operations, turned around plants that were losing their biggest customers, built an operation from nothing in Saudi Arabia, and mobilized to remote locations in Africa on short notice to get equipment running again.

I am based in Los Angeles, hold dual U.S. and U.K. citizenship, and have operated across the United States, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Africa. I currently lead Visionary Pet Foods and KetoPet, where seven years of canine metabolic health research became a differentiated low-carbohydrate pet food business.

I am not a consultant who delivers a deck and leaves. I work alongside the people already in the business until the problem is solved.

Companies rarely need outside operating help when the road is smooth.

Build. Fix. Grow.

Build.

Fix.

Grow.

The problem, the work, the result.

The product had to eat like a real donut. Bakery equipment was never designed to make it.

An acquired plant was late, failing quality, and about to lose its largest contract.

The business needed a real operation in the Middle East, not a strategy for one.

Owners, operators and investors with a problem that has a deadline.

Paul Raybould

If the road has become difficult, start with a conversation.