Drew Rankin
Founder / Managing Partner at Parkway Food Group
United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Mexico
About
I work with food and beverage businesses to solve complex commercial and operational challenges with a practical, operator-led approach. My background spans executive leadership, corporate strategy, banking, and entrepreneurship, giving me a unique perspective on how to build, scale, and strengthen businesses in competitive markets. As President of a rapidly growing commercial bakery, I helped scale operations across North America, supporting significant revenue growth, expanding retail partnerships, and leading a team of more than 100 employees. Through Parkway Food Group, I now advise manufacturers, distributors, and emerging brands on growth strategy, sales execution, retailer relationships, procurement optimization, operational improvement, and market expansion. I understand the realities business owners face because I have lived them: margin pressure, customer concentration, operational bottlenecks, staffing challenges, and the constant need to grow while managing risk. My focus is not theoretical consulting. It is building practical solutions that drive measurable outcomes. Whether supporting a founder navigating growth, a manufacturer entering new channels, or an ownership group evaluating acquisitions and strategy, I bring a hands-on approach rooted in accountability, execution, and long-term partnership. I believe the best advisors combine strategy with the ability to get things done.
Industries Served
Engagement Types
Licenses & Certifications
MBA
President
Board Director
Services
I help food and beverage businesses navigate acquisitions, divestitures, and growth opportunities with an operator-led approach grounded in strategy and execution. From deal sourcing and due diligence to value creation and integration planning, I support owners and investors in identifying risk, unlocking growth, improving operations, and maximizing long-term enterprise value.
Provide executive-level commercial leadership without the cost of a full-time hire. Support includes sales strategy, customer development, pricing, retailer engagement, team accountability, and growth planning. Ideal for businesses seeking experienced leadership to accelerate revenue growth, improve commercial execution, and professionalize sales operations during periods of expansion or transition.
Support brands entering or scaling within retail channels through category strategy, retailer engagement, pricing architecture, packaging alignment, promotional planning, and commercialization support. Leverage deep industry relationships and practical market knowledge to help businesses secure listings, improve sell-through, strengthen retailer partnerships, and build sustainable long-term retail growth across North America.
Identify opportunities to improve margins through strategic sourcing, supplier negotiations, packaging optimization, freight analysis, and procurement restructuring. Support businesses in reducing operational costs while improving supply continuity and mitigating commodity risk. Focus on practical savings initiatives that strengthen profitability without compromising product quality, customer service, or operational performance.
Help founders and ownership groups navigate leadership transitions, succession planning, and long-term business continuity. Support includes organizational assessment, governance planning, executive recruitment support, transition roadmaps, and strategic advisory through ownership changes. Focus on protecting enterprise value while ensuring operational stability and sustainable long-term growth for future leadership teams.
Provide strategic advisory support to ownership groups, executives, and boards on growth strategy, operational priorities, organizational structure, and long-term planning. Facilitate business planning sessions, KPI development, accountability frameworks, and executive decision-making. Bring an operator-led perspective grounded in practical execution, commercial realities, and measurable business outcomes.
Design and optimize go-to-market structures across retail, foodservice, convenience, and distribution channels. Support includes broker selection, distributor negotiations, territory strategy, commission structures, performance management, and channel expansion planning. Help businesses build scalable commercial networks that improve market coverage, customer relationships, and profitable revenue growth.
Support underperforming businesses with practical strategies to stabilize operations, improve margins, strengthen commercial execution, and restore growth. Focus areas include customer concentration reduction, pricing strategy, operational efficiency, organizational alignment, and profitability improvement. Deliver operator-led guidance designed to create measurable results in complex or challenging business environments.
Help businesses modernize commercial operations through AI-enabled workflows, CRM implementation, reporting automation, sales enablement systems, and data-driven decision-making. Support sales teams with tools that improve responsiveness, organization, pipeline visibility, and customer engagement. Focus on practical applications of technology that drive efficiency, scalability, and stronger commercial performance.
Clients
