Operational intelligence, engineered.
Exklusive was founded to help ambitious operators professionalize their infrastructure before inefficiencies become structural liabilities.
An operations and technology firm for food, retail and hospitality.
Exklusive Consulting helps owners build, scale and run their businesses efficiently. We bridge the gap between technology, operations and finance, and align marketing with all three.
We work with grocery, premium and experimental grocery, hospitality and retail companies, from pre-opening to long-established. Most are in the start-up or growth phase.
The work is hands-on and done inside the business, alongside the people who run it. We take on a small number of clients at a time so each one gets senior attention.
A team behind every engagement.
Mike leads the work. Specialists join as the project calls for them, so strategy, systems and brand move together.
Mike Penner
I open businesses, run them, and build the systems that keep them running. I opened a premium grocer in New York and ran it as COO, after Costco, Fairway and quick commerce, and I still serve it as fractional CTO.
I have also opened a restaurant in the Hamptons and premium grocery and liquor concepts for venture capital firms. Today I work as a contracted COO and CTO for a few companies at a time.
From empty space to opening day, and the years after.
Our work is collaborative, discreet and deeply embedded, so projects are described here without names.
Chief Operating Officer, then fractional CTO
Opened the company and ran it as COO. Continuing today as its contracted fractional CTO.
Opening
Opened a restaurant in the Hamptons.
Opening and operations
Opened premium grocery and liquor concepts for venture capital firms.
Consultant
Operations, technology and finance work across grocery operations and early-stage technology companies.
Operational intelligence is the foundation of sustainable scale.
Growth without structure is fragile.
Food and retail run on tight margins and complex systems. Structure is what makes scale survivable.
Technology without integration is noise.
The advantage is not the number of tools. It is how well they talk to each other and to the people using them.
Execution without visibility is guesswork.
Leaders should see margin, labor and inventory as they happen, not thirty days later.
What this is not
- A mass-market consultancy
- A generic operational advisory
- A software vendor with something to sell you
What this is
- Embedded with your leadership team
- Hands-on in the store and in the systems
- Selective about how many clients we take at once
Some of the companies we have worked with.
Founders, operators and leadership teams building the next generation of food, retail and hospitality companies, from emerging brands to established businesses working through scale and change.
The Truth Behind Premium Grocery
The full method is in a book I'm writing. It starts with the 20 questions I ask on the first day of any engagement. Take them, and you'll get the chapters as they're ready.
Take the 20 questions →Too valuable to scale incorrectly.
If that describes your business, let's talk about what it needs next.