The practice
Paul Yeates. Fractional FC, FD and CFO for manufacturing and production-led groups. Board reporting and the operating close, on the same retainer.
Twenty years of operational finance in manufacturing, engineering, FMCG, automotive, warehouse and logistics, and professional services. The through-line is costing operations will defend, cash the bank will recognise, and a month-end that does not depend on one person.
Current retainers: a PE-owned international manufacturing group, and an owner-managed contract manufacturer. The practice takes a small number of seats so the principal stays on the work.
Where this sits
Larger firms do adjacent work. The distinctions matter before you write a brief. Longer note in Consultant, not adviser.
Rathbones Private Office, The Private Office, Forvis Mazars private client
Personal wealth, pensions, trusts, cash-flow for the family. FCA-authorised because they recommend regulated products.
They do not take the finance seat in a plant. They do not rebuild costing, run a close, or sit with the bank on a working-capital facility.
Forvis Mazars, BDO, Grant Thornton, RSM, Moore Kingston Smith
Bookkeeping through to FD support as a team product. Useful when you want a bench, tax, and a brand the audit committee already knows.
You buy a firm, not a named operator. The person on the file rotates. Manufacturing costing and a PE pack are extra, not the default.
The CFO Centre, The FD Centre
The largest UK model: hundreds of part-time CFOs matched to SMEs, typically £2m–£50m, on a managed retainer. Coverage is the point.
You are matched. You do not pick the principal, and you do not get manufacturing-floor costing as a specialism unless the match happens to have it.
FD Capital, GoCFO, and a long tail of matching sites
Introduce an independent FD or CFO. FD Capital is ICAEW-registered placement. Newer boards match at a wide range of prices and seniority.
The platform is not on the work. Quality is the individual. Some listings start at a few hundred pounds a month — that is reporting, not a finance seat.
FTI, AlixPartners, FRP Advisory, Quantuma, Begbies Traynor
Stressed and distressed: options papers, administrations, lender-led work. The right call when the directors’ duties have changed.
They are not a retained FC. If the brief is to keep the close running after a rescue, that is a different engagement.
Independents and small practices, including Savastute
One operator, scoped in writing, on the client’s ledger. Sector depth instead of a bench. Retainers measured in days, not a product shelf.
No national coverage, no spare partner if the principal is full. Capacity is the constraint, on purpose.
Strategic finance, cash modelling, entity design and the operating close sit outside FCA product authorisation. Pensions, ISAs and discretionary investment do not. Savastute does the first list and will work with your IFA, solicitor and accountant on the second.
A network sells coverage. A mid-tier firm sells a brand. A private office sells the family’s capital. Savastute sells the principal on the file — manufacturing, production and professional-services groups, at FC, FD or CFO height.
2026 – present
Savastute — two current retainers
2018 – 2026
Manufacturing, production–retail and professional services
2006 – 2018
Engineering, FMCG, automotive, warehouse and logistics
Engagements are invoiced by SAVASTUTE LIMITED, company number 17501997, registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ.
Professional indemnity is maintained. A certificate is available to clients and their brokers on request.
No software referral fees. No junior bench. If a specialist is needed, they are named in the scope before they appear.