When growth outruns your systems, get an outside view of where time and margin are leaking.

I'm Andrew Malby, founder and principal of IronRoot Consulting, based in Ave Maria, Florida. I travel on site wherever your operation is across the US and Canada. For 14+ years I've led manufacturing, distribution, and supply-chain operations. I work with founder-led companies that make, store, ship, and supply physical goods — the ones that grow faster than their systems.

Alongside my work as founder of IronRoot Consulting, I currently serve as VP of Sales & Operations at Stevie's Italian Foods, a wholesale supplier of premium olive oils, cheeses, and tomato products serving food manufacturers, foodservice distributors, and regional restaurant groups since 1987. I lead day-to-day sales and operations, with a focus on tighter systems, sharper visibility, specification-grade consistency, and proactive COAs and traceability documentation.

My focus is practical: find where execution breaks down, cut operational friction, clarify who owns what, and strengthen the supply chain so the business can run without you in every decision.

Before IronRoot I was Director of Operations at DLF across multiple facilities — from the dock to the production line to the shipping lane — with responsibility for over 100 people and oversight of over a dozen third-party partners. In that role I led site rationalization — closing and opening sites and pushing manufacturing output — capital projects with real ROI, vendor issue resolution, moving product in the US and worldwide, and contract-versus-spot buying strategy. I led the managers over:

• Warehousing, manufacturing, and all maintenance (multiple warehouse managers under that lead)
• Domestic and international order fulfillment, including empty packaging operations
• Packaging and supplies procurement (labels, pallets, boxes, shrink wrap)

Change management is core to how I consult. I started at DLF as Transition Manager before becoming Director of Operations, and as Director of Operations I led employee change management — taking people through operational change, not just redesigning the process.

Earlier, as General Manager of a business segment at Nutrien Ag Solutions, I owned full P&L and led a team of leaders across sales, operations and logistics, procurement, and R&D — two sales managers (each with salespeople under them), an operations manager over logistics and warehouse managers, a procurement manager over buyers, and a head of R&D over a full research team — plus finance and accounting for the segment, with Nutrien shared services in support — with responsibility for over 60 people. In that role I increased product volume by 21%. I managed production planning, procurement strategy, and price negotiations across 100+ suppliers — reducing COGS 7%, raising manufacturing output 4% while cutting operating expenses 6%, and led the site's SAP transition (with Nutrien's implementation team in support). Systems I've run include SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, and Pilot (a seed-industry ERP).

Before that, starting in June 2012, as Inventory Control Manager at Barenbrug USA, I owned company-wide inventory, direct purchasing of goods (the main margin driver), and inbound logistics. I negotiated and developed suppliers, built repeatable purchasing and inventory processes, hit target inventory carryover for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, and kept financial forecasts at or below target. I planned inventory across multiple business sectors, ran agreements with 50+ suppliers, supervised a couple of CDL drivers, and reported stock position to the CEO and international holding-company leadership.

Inventory and purchasing are a through-line in that work. At Barenbrug I owned the details that make inventory true: forecasting, reorder logic, supplier negotiation, the reality of the warehouse floor, inventory counts and audits, and SKU rationalization. Across Barenbrug, Nutrien, and DLF I handled international purchasing — shipping, buying and selling product across countries, quality specs, government requirements, and terms and banking.

I hold an M.S. in Global Supply Chain Management (Portland State) and a B.S. in Horticulture (Oregon State). No belt certifications — the work is from running the operation.