Philip Cefai spent 35 years in sales, working his way up to Managing Director at Crown Paints. Six months after acquiring H. Mears (Furnishers) Ltd. – a 220-year-old family business in Preston, UK – he sat down with Charles Williams, AIA's Head of Value Creation, to talk honestly about the journey: what it's really like to take over a business, what he'd do differently, and what it means to have AIA alongside you every step of the way.
When people ask what leading an MBI actually feels like in practice, the most honest answer isn't found in a brochure – it's Philip Cefai, sitting down six months after completing his acquisition, talking through what it was really like. Not just the edited highlights – the whole picture...
There's a particular moment every new CEO experiences, and Philip describes it with a clarity that will be familiar to anyone who has walked into an organisation where they know no one. You've spent months getting to know the previous owner. You've been through due diligence, legal processes and tough negotiations. And then the deal completes – and you are, in a meaningful sense, alone.
You don't know anybody other than the owner. You're sort of alone, which is a weird experience when you've been part of a business for 20 odd years and you know everyone. To go into somewhere where you don't know anybody at all.
His instinct was to meet that moment directly: to put himself in front of people, listen to their fears, and be honest about the road ahead. The team at Mears had anticipated change would come at some point – but not quite this soon. Some adapted quickly. Others needed more time and reassurance. Philip's read was accurate: the response, in the main, was positive.
What he would do differently, looking back, is spend even more time with the previous owner before the handover, understanding the customer relationships in depth – particularly the commercial contacts he'd need once external pressures (in this case, a volatile supply chain driven by events in Iran) required engagement further up the buyer hierarchy than he'd anticipated.
This kind of reflection is precisely on point. The first months inside a new business are a fast and unforgiving education.
H. Mears was founded in 1802. Philip is working alongside a sixth-generation seller who entrusted him not just with the business – but with 33 employees and a legacy built over two centuries. The question of how you honour that history while also moving things forward is one that every MBI operator must answer.
Philip's answer is measured:
Don't trash the past. It's grown well. It's performed well over the years. If you're going to scale the business, you do have to make changes – but it's doing it in a respectful way. Too much change in a business like that would cause destabilisation.
The changes are coming. The systems and processes that worked for a family-run business need updating – there's still a significant amount of manual intervention in the day-to-day, and Philip describes the current phase candidly as 'firefighting' while the structural improvements are put in place. But it is happening in a way that takes the team with it, rather than signalling that everything before was wrong.
The question Charles put to Philip – 'Where has AIA's support made the biggest difference?' – drew what is probably the most important answer in the video for anyone considering the MBI Program.
It's allowed me to concentrate on running the business.
That sentence is very significant. It reflects something AIA has designed from the ground up: an operational support structure that surrounds the operating partner with genuine expertise, not just financial backing.
Philip goes further. What sets AIA apart, in his view, is the entrepreneurial nature of the team – people who have actually run businesses, not just invested in them:
"It isn't just about the finances. There's financial support, but also legal support, operational support, and CEO support in terms of how to run a business. We've got people on board that actually know how to do these things, as opposed to a theoretical exercise. If you've got a problem with a legal contract, you can go to the legal team and they'll take it away and sort it. Operationally, if you've got a problem with the banking system or anything else, they will sort it and come back to you – and that relieves a lot of pressure on me as the CEO."
The analogy he reaches for is revealing:
It's like having the umbrella of a corporate structure – the depth and breadth of support – without the hierarchy, the politics, or the bureaucracy. Real people who know how to run businesses, available when you need them.
Philip also addressed the sellers – the retiring owners who may be watching a video like this, wondering whether the time is right and whether an MBI is the right path.
His advice is about the emotional dimension of succession, not just the transactional one:
"They should be asking, 'How will you help me transition once I've sold the business?' 'How will you help me step away from something I've been involved in for however many years and watch somebody else take the reins, make decisions, and direct the team?' Transactionally, they may say they can deal with it – but the emotional break is the real thing."
And on the process itself – for owners who have heard about management buy-ins but aren't sure what to expect – Philip is straightforward: it's fair, it moves at pace, and both sides need to engage for it to work.
The name, he says, captures it well. All Interests Aligned. That's what he set out to achieve in the acquisition – and he still believes the AIA process delivers it.
If you're an experienced operator considering a management buy-in or a business owner thinking about succession, we'd welcome the conversation.
Learn more about our MBI Program – Talent Platform
Learn more about selling your business – Business Owners
