UHY has big aspirations. Already ranked by Accounting Today as the 26th-largest US accounting firm with approximately $385 million in revenue, the professional services firm wants to become a billion-dollar company. Its new CFO, Laura LaPeer, will play an important role in helping the company reach that objective.

“That’s one of the things that really attracted me to this role, is the seat that the CFO has at the table,” LaPeer, whom UHY announced as its new finance chief back in July, told CFO Brew. She said her job is “to not only be involved in M&A, being part of the board, working with our private equity firm, but really helping to grow the firm [and] also look to see how we can be operationally effective.”

Michigan-based UHY announced late last year it had secured private equity investment from Summit Partners. The two firms didn’t disclose the terms of the deal, but UHY noted the PE injection will help the company grow both organically and through M&A.

“This partnership marks the beginning of a new and expanded era of growth for UHY,” Steve McCarty, CEO of UHY, said in a December news release.

She’s got the background. LaPeer joined UHY from another accounting firm, Plante Moran, where she also served as CFO. Before that, she worked for another company, ProQuest, which also had private equity backing.

For more on how LaPeer is helping UHY become a billion-dollar firm, click here.—AZ

US manufacturing activity shrank for an eighth straight month in October, due to slumps in both production and inventories, according to the latest sector index from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

ISM’s purchasing managers index (PMI) came in at 48.7% last month, slightly lower than September’s reading of 49.1%. An index reading below 50% indicates a contraction in the manufacturing sector. Economists that Reuters polled had predicted a slight improvement in the PMI, to 49.5%, but the government shutdown “has caused a government economic data blackout,” Reuters reported.

It was “contractions in production and inventories” that were responsible for “the 0.4-percentage point decrease of the manufacturing PMI” over the previous month, Susan Spence, chair of the ISM’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said in a news release. ISM’s production index decreased 2.8 percentage points from September, to 48.2%. Its inventories index of 45.8% was down 1.9 percentage points.

All four of ISM’s demand indicators—new orders, exports, order backlogs, and customer inventories—improved, but were “still in contraction territory” last month, according to Spence.

How sluggish is US manufacturing?—AZ

Americans love getting food delivered straight to their doors. Thrive Market is an online platform that allows members to order healthy, organic, sustainable food and products from its curated marketplace.

But food delivery has changed a lot since the days of “30 minutes or less” for a pie. The pandemic and the rise of DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Instacart have made delivery of any type of cuisine and even just basic groceries as easy as putting on a Netflix show.

CFO Brew checked in with Hetu Patel, CFO of Thrive Market, to see how grocery delivery has changed over the years and how Thrive Market is competing.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How did grocery price inflation affect your business?

Households felt it on the grocery bills, particularly at a time when consumer confidence was a bit wavering. For us, when we look at a lot of consumers, we see one consistency is the need and desire to have healthy living options available to individuals and families remains persistent. And in that environment, the desire to have better value, sharper prices becomes even greater. And I think that’s where Thrive Market really offers that easy, affordable solution…even through these macro changes. We saw that demand being very persistent, and in fact, our value proposition resonating even more. And really doubles down on what we believe our mission ought to be: Make that membership a no-brainer, by delivering ongoing day-to-day value to members as they shop for their healthy living needs with us.

For more, click here.—JK

The pandemic didn’t just test businesses—it transformed their financial leaders. CFOs recall the chaos, creativity, and decision-making that elevated the role from back-office to boardroom.