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A small white ferry crossing a calm sound between islands at sunset

Advisers to family companies, from Edinburgh.

We work with owner‑led companies of 50 to 800 people on pricing, operations and succession, in Scotland, England and across the North Sea. Eleven of us, since 2012.

Ardnish Ferries

Timetable, West Highlands, 2024

Sailings on time from 78% to 94%

Edinburgh 09:41

We spend the first three weeks on your floor, beside the people who do the work. Then we tell you what we’d change and what it’s worth.

Most of our clients are second or third generation: distilleries, mills, boatyards, bakeries, ferry and haulage firms. They hire us when margins slip or a founder is ready to step back.

160

engagements since 2012

160

engagements since 2012

58%

of clients hire us again

58%

of clients hire us again

12 wk

median engagement

12 wk

median engagement

Four kinds of work

Most engagements start with a three‑week diagnostic. If the numbers say a programme is worth it, we stay to deliver it.

All services

Pricing

A farm shop owner checking jars on a shelf against a clipboard

Prices set from evidence, so every product earns its place on the list.

4 to 8 margin points in a year

From

£14,500

Pricing

Prices set from evidence, so every product earns its place on the list.

4 to 8 margin points in a year

From

£14,500

Pricing

Prices set from evidence, so every product earns its place on the list.

4 to 8 margin points in a year

From

£14,500

Operations

A supervisor and a line worker talking beside a production line

Orders that leave on time, and a plan the whole floor can read.

Lead times cut by half

From

£48,000

Operations

Orders that leave on time, and a plan the whole floor can read.

Lead times cut by half

From

£48,000

Operations

Orders that leave on time, and a plan the whole floor can read.

Lead times cut by half

From

£48,000

Growth

A woman unlocking the door of a newly fitted shop at dawn

Open the second shop with numbers from the first.

Payback inside a year

From

£48,000

Growth

Open the second shop with numbers from the first.

Payback inside a year

From

£48,000

Growth

Open the second shop with numbers from the first.

Payback inside a year

From

£48,000

Succession

A joiner in his seventies and his son going over a drawing at the workbench

A handover that holds, for the family and for the business.

Handover in 12 to 24 months

From

£6,000 a month

Succession

A handover that holds, for the family and for the business.

Handover in 12 to 24 months

From

£6,000 a month

Succession

A handover that holds, for the family and for the business.

Handover in 12 to 24 months

From

£6,000 a month

All services

Case studies

A stillman checking a gauge between two copper pot stills in a stone still house

31%

37%

gross margin, with volume flat

Strathlinn Distillery

Pricing

Speyside

Cones of mustard, rust and teal yarn on a creel in a knitwear mill

11 wk

5 wk

from order to dispatch

Corran Knitwear

Operations

Hawick

A small car ferry at a stone slipway with cars waiting on the shore at dusk

78%

94%

of sailings on time

Ardnish Ferries

Operations

West Highlands

A baker shaping a loaf while another carries a tray to the oven

shops in two years

Haldane’s Bakehouse

Growth

Glasgow

A boatbuilder planing a plank beside a half-built wooden boat in an open shed

18 months

from founder to new managing director

Brodie Boatyard

Succession

Moray Firth

A woman chalking a pattern on waxed cotton in an Inverness clothing workshop

14%

of sales from Norway in a year

Ardvar Outdoor

Growth

Inverness

All case studies

How an engagement runs

A typical programme takes 16 weeks. The bars show where each stage sits.

Diagnose

Weeks 1 to 3

We work on your floor and in your numbers. You get a written diagnosis and a figure for what each fix is worth.

Decide

Week 4

One meeting with the owners and the people who will run the change. We agree what to do first, and what we will leave alone.

Deliver

Weeks 5 to 14

We make the change with your team, two or three days a week, and report against the numbers we agreed in week 4.

Hand over

Weeks 15 and 16

We write down how it works, train whoever owns it next, and leave. Most clients call us again within two years.

A baker lifting a sourdough loaf from a cooling rack

“They spent a week in the bakehouse before they said a word about money.”

Moira Haldane, managing director, Haldane’s Bakehouse

Ways to work with us

Every engagement starts with a diagnostic, and you are free to stop there. If you go on, the diagnostic fee comes off the programme.

Projects

Ongoing

Diagnostic

Three weeks inside the business. A written answer and a plan you can run without us.

3 weeks

fixed fee

£14,500

Programme

We stay to deliver the plan with your team, with a partner leading from the first week to the handover.

10 to 16 weeks

from

£48,000

Fees are agreed in writing before we start. Prices exclude VAT and travel outside Scotland.

Projects

Ongoing

Diagnostic

Three weeks inside the business. A written answer and a plan you can run without us.

3 weeks

fixed fee

£14,500

Programme

We stay to deliver the plan with your team, with a partner leading from the first week to the handover.

10 to 16 weeks

from

£48,000

Fees are agreed in writing before we start. Prices exclude VAT and travel outside Scotland.

The new price list took three weeks to build, and we have not needed to change it since.

Fiona Strachan

Managing director

Strathlinn Distillery

Priya knew which Norwegian shops to call and what they would ask. We signed two in a month.

Sanna Ross

Founder

Ardvar Outdoor

We had tried two software systems to fix our lead times. Ferrow fixed them with a whiteboard and twelve yarns.

Ewan Laidlaw

Operations director

Corran Knitwear

The partners

Isla Dunbar

Founding partner

Pricing and succession

Callum Reid

Partner

Operations

Priya Nair

Partner

Growth and new markets

Rob Sinclair

Partner

Finance and ownership

A partner leads every engagement from the first call to the handover. Seven consultants work beside them.

Insights

All insights

A pencil-marked price sheet and three Strathlinn bottles on a shop counter

Pricing

September 12, 2026

Why raising every price by 5% loses margin

2 min read

Twelve cones of coloured yarn lined up on a whiteboard ledge

Operations

August 21, 2026

Twelve yarns: what a knitwear mill taught us about lead times

2 min read

An empty shop being fitted out, with brown paper on the windows and a stepladder

Growth

July 30, 2026

Before you open a second shop, model the first one

2 min read

All insights

Questions

Anything else, write to us and a partner will reply within a working day.

hello@ferrowpartners.co.uk

How long does a diagnostic take?

What size of company do you work with?

Do you work outside Scotland?

Who will we work with?

What happens after a programme?

How do we start?

Edinburgh rooftops and the castle at dusk from Calton Hill

Start with a half‑hour call.

Tell us what’s changed in the business. If we’re not the right firm for it, we’ll say so and suggest one that is. We can take two new clients from January.

hello@ferrowpartners.co.uk

Book a first call

We reply within one working day.

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