

THE FORGE CPG
Margins or Death
From chaos to cashflow
— strategies, tactics and tools for making real profits.
Welcome to The Forge CPG.
Scale faster. Protect your margins.
Grow the brand you dreamed of.
The Forge CPG
You built something real. But now the chaos is setting in.
Margins are shrinking. Lead times are brutal.
Hiring feels impossible. Scale feels like a trap.
This is where most brands break.
Not because the product sucked—
but because execution did.
The Forge CPG is different.
​
We’re not a single consultant.
We’re a network of operators who’ve scaled, survived, and built in the trenches of CPG.
Together, we cover the disciplines that kill or catapult brands:
-
Marketing & Growth Strategy
-
HR & Recruiting
-
Operations & Supply Chain
-
Quality & Regulatory
-
SR&ED / Government Funding
-
Lean & Process Improvement
-
Project Management
-
CFO & Fractional Accounting
-
And More!
No theory. No fluff. Just results.
Better margins.
Smarter execution.
Teams and systems that don’t buckle under pressure.
If you’re done duct-taping your business together—
Step into The Forge.

ABOUT THE FORGE CPG
Margins or Death isn’t just a book — it’s how we operate.
​
A full-service CPG firm delivering consulting, productized solutions, and fractional leadership so brands can scale profitably without the guesswork.
​
ABOUT THE FORGE
​
The Forge CPG was built by operators who know that advice alone doesn’t fix broken math.
We combine deep-dive consulting, ready-to-deploy packages, and fractional experts who plug directly into your team to get work done.
​
Founded by Steve Dontigny, author of Margins or Death, our crew has launched new brands, rebuilt co-man programs, clawed back millions in lost margin, and brought chaotic ops under control.
​
WHAT WE OFFER
We bridge the gap between advisory and execution:
-
Ops & Supply-Chain Consulting – COGS reduction, co-man selection, logistics optimization
-
Quality & Compliance Solutions – Canada & US Compliance Suites, Quality Sprint, recall & traceability toolkits
-
Financial & Growth Modeling – trade-spend math, SR&ED, True-COGS calculators, Charge-back Analyzer
-
Productized Tools & Sprints – Margin Multiplier, SKU Kill Matrix, Retail Gauntlet, Launch Toolbox and more
-
Fractional Leadership & Specialists – seasoned Ops, Quality, CFO, Project-Management, and Marketing leaders embedded part-time to fill critical gaps fast
-
Process & Launch Packages – 4-week sprints, SOP templates, Lean/Six-Sigma process builds
​
We don’t just tell you what’s broken — we provide the people, the tools, and the fix.
​
FRACTIONAL ADVANTAGE
Get Senior-Level Firepower — Without the Full-Time Payroll.
Early-stage and scaling brands often need a VP of Ops, a CFO, or a Quality Director — but not all at once, and not full-time.
Our fractional model drops in the exact expertise you need for the hours you need it, saving you cash while keeping execution sharp.
​
Roles we commonly fill fractionally:
-
VP / Director of Operations
-
Head of Quality & Regulatory
-
Fractional CFO & Finance Team
-
Project Managers for Launches
-
Marketing & Retail Readiness Leads
​
​
OUR EDGE
​
We replace theory decks with fractional leaders, plug-and-play packages, and tools you can use tomorrow.
If your brand is stuck in “almost,” we’ll get you to profitable scale — fast.
​
Margins or Death. That’s the choice.
We help you pick margins.
​
Stop duct-taping your ops together. Step into The Forge.
​