If you’re hiring at the manager level or above at a CPG or food and beverage company, you’ve probably worked with a recruiter before. And you’ve probably wondered at some point: what exactly is the difference between retained search and contingency recruiting, and does it actually matter which one I use?
The short answer: yes, it matters a lot. And most brands don’t think carefully enough about this decision before starting a search.
Here’s what you need to know.
The Short Answer
Retained search vs contingency food and beverage recruiting comes down to this: retained search means you hire a recruiting firm exclusively to fill a role, and you pay a portion of the fee upfront regardless of outcome. Contingency recruiting means the firm only gets paid if they successfully place someone — and they’re almost always competing with other firms (and your internal team) to get there first. Both models can work. But for mid-market CPG and food & beverage companies hiring at the manager level and above, they produce very different experiences and very different results.
What Is Retained Search?
Retained search is an exclusive engagement. You hire one firm, pay a portion of the fee to kick off the search (typically structured in two or three installments), and that firm becomes a dedicated partner for that specific role.
Because the recruiter is already being compensated — and isn’t racing against anyone else — they can take the time to do the search properly. That means sourcing passive candidates who aren’t actively looking, building a real slate of finalists instead of just sending whoever’s available, and staying close to the process from first call to signed offer.
Retained search is the default model for most executive-level roles: VPs, Directors, C-suite, and senior leadership positions where a bad hire is very, very expensive.
What Is Contingency Recruiting?
In a contingency model, the recruiter earns their fee only after a successful placement. No hire, no payment. That sounds appealing on the surface, but there are real tradeoffs.
Because there’s no guaranteed revenue, contingency recruiters tend to work on multiple searches at once and prioritize the ones most likely to close quickly. They default to active candidates who are easy to find and respond fast — not the high-performing passive candidates who are usually the best fit for a role. And since you’re often working with more than one contingency firm at the same time, the experience can feel chaotic.
For lower-urgency, high-volume, or more junior roles, contingency recruiting can be a perfectly reasonable approach. But for a Director-level supply chain hire, a VP of Sales, or a Head of Marketing? The math on “no upfront cost” starts to look different when you’re six months into a search and still don’t have the right person.
How the Two Models Compare
Here’s a quick side-by-side for reference:
| Retained Search | Contingency Recruiting | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment | Fee paid in installments, beginning at kickoff | Fee paid only upon successful placement |
| Exclusivity | Yes — one firm works the search | No — often multiple firms on the same role |
| Candidate pool | Heavy focus on passive candidates | Primarily active candidates |
| Recruiter focus | Full attention on your role | Split across many open searches |
| Best for | Director, VP, and C-suite roles; confidential searches; niche functional expertise | High-volume hiring, lower-urgency roles, large talent pools |
Which Model Is Better for CPG and Food & Beverage Companies?
For most manager-level and above searches at a CPG or food and beverage brand, retained search is the stronger model. Here’s why.
The CPG and food & beverage talent market is niche. The universe of qualified candidates for a Senior Brand Manager role at a $100M natural food brand or a VP of Supply Chain at a regional food manufacturer is not large. You need a recruiter who will work their network proactively, reach out to people who aren’t actively looking, and represent your company well in those conversations. That takes time, relationship capital, and focus — none of which you get from a contingency firm that’s already working 20 other searches.
There’s also the candidate experience to consider. The best passive candidates — the ones with strong track records and multiple options — can tell the difference between a transactional outreach and a thoughtful search. A retained search process signals that you’re serious, that you’ve invested in finding the right person, and that the search is being run professionally.
Finally, retained search is much better suited to the confidentiality often required in CPG hiring. Replacing a VP who doesn’t know they’re being replaced? Expanding into a new channel and not ready to telegraph that to competitors? Those searches require discretion, and contingency recruiting — with multiple firms touching candidates simultaneously — makes that nearly impossible.
The Case for Fixed-Fee Retained Search
Traditional retained search has one persistent knock against it: the cost. At most large search firms, retained executive search fees run 25–33% of first-year compensation. For a $175K VP-level hire, that’s $45K–$58K in recruiting fees. For a growing mid-market brand, that’s a real number.
That’s one reason we built High Altitude Recruiting around a fixed-fee model. Every search we run is retained — full exclusivity, passive candidate sourcing, detailed candidate evaluations, and a transparent process from day one — but the fee is a flat rate that averages $10K per search, not a percentage of salary.
For CPG and food & beverage brands in the $10M–$500M range, this changes the math entirely. You get all the rigor of a true retained search without having to budget based on what your future hire’s salary might be. And because we give every client real-time access to a search portal throughout the engagement, there’s no black box, no wondering where things stand, and no uncomfortable “what have you been doing for the past three weeks?” conversations.
Questions to Ask Any Recruiting Firm Before You Sign
Whether you go retained, contingency, or something in between, here are a few questions worth asking before you commit:
- Are you working exclusively on this search, or will other firms be submitting candidates at the same time?
- What does your candidate sourcing process look like? Are you primarily reaching out to passive candidates?
- How many active searches is the recruiter assigned to my role currently managing?
- How will you communicate search progress? Weekly updates? A portal? Calls only when there’s a finalist?
- Is your fee a percentage of salary, a flat fee, or a retainer structure?
- What happens if the hire doesn’t work out within the first six months?
The answers will tell you a lot about what the search experience is actually going to look like.
The Bottom Line
Retained search vs contingency recruiting isn’t really a debate about payment timing. It’s a debate about what kind of search experience you want and what kind of candidate you’re trying to find.
For CPG and food & beverage companies hiring at the manager level and above, retained search is the right model almost every time. The question is whether the traditional fee structure works for your budget — and that’s where the fixed-fee model changes things.
If you’re getting ready to hire and want to understand what a retained search actually looks like at High Altitude Recruiting, we’d love to walk you through our process. Learn more about how we work — or use our Compensation Calculator to see what the right hire might actually be worth to your business.