Primecraft Partners trains buyers to find, screen, and acquire succession-ready industrial and engineering businesses — and helps founders prepare theirs for a worthy exit.
Built by practitioners. For practitioners.
White-collar employment has contracted for 29 consecutive months — something that hasn't happened outside a recession in 70 years. Some of the most credentialled people in the labour market are still out of work three months after graduating: 21% of Duke MBAs, 25% at Georgetown, 16% at Harvard Business School.
At the same time, McKinsey estimates 6 million businesses — $5 trillion in enterprise value — are heading toward closure. Not because they're failing, but because there's nobody to take them over. And employees are three times more likely than their own leaders realise to believe AI will replace 30% of their work within the next year.
Three crises. One window. Primecraft Partners is built to step into it — training buyers to acquire the businesses too small for private equity, too niche for the online marketplaces, and too fragmented for brokers to bother with, while helping the founders behind those businesses prepare for the exit they deserve.
"The conflict of interest everyone warned us about turned out to be the business model."
The two sides feed each other. Every buyer who completes the Deal Academy becomes a potential source of seller leads. Every founder who enters the advisory practice becomes a potential match for a buyer in the network — professionals who need an alternative to deteriorating employment, and founders who need a worthy successor for their life's work.
Risk management first. CRAFT is the filter every target passes through before we even ask whether the business can be improved. Five criteria, one question each, applied to every business on the list.
60%+ recurring, contracted revenue rather than reactive or transactional work.
Certifications held at business level — Gas Safe, NICEIC, REFCOM — not just by the founder.
10+ years trading with long-standing client relationships that predate any single hire.
Director 58+, approaching succession age, with genuine motivation and no plan in place.
Systems, team, and client relationships extend well beyond the founder alone.
Selection isn't about what sounds impressive — it's about where a buyer's background gives them credibility in the first ten minutes.
60–70% recurring revenue through maintenance contracts.
Gas Safe and F-Gas requirements create non-deferrable compliance demand and pricing resilience.
Project work blended with periodic inspection and compliance contracts.
NICEIC certification and trained labour make the workforce difficult to replicate quickly.
80%+ recurring revenue through annual service contracts.
Insurance and building regulation support unusually durable contractual demand.
Reactive callout work plus planned commercial maintenance.
Margin quality improves where reactive work converts into repeat property-manager contracts.
Multi-trade maintenance delivered under multi-year commercial contracts.
Higher revenue ceiling and a natural entry point for consolidation-minded buyers.
Buyer training on one side. Seller advisory on the other. Every relationship on either side strengthens the network on both.
A structured training programme that teaches professionals how to find, screen, and acquire sub-£2M revenue industrial and engineering businesses — using the CRAFT framework, live case studies, and a real target list built session by session.
CRAFT in reverse. We work with founders to prepare their business for the exit it deserves — improving contractedness, regulatory standing, and transferability before it ever reaches a buyer. The PE exit playbook, translated for owner-operators.
The Deal Academy is the entry point. What comes after depends on how far you want to take it.
Which archetype you are determines the route through the Deal Academy and the likely exit strategy — including whether you're building toward a single business or a roll-up.
Finance or consulting professional who wants to own and run a sub-£2M revenue business full time.
Buyer who acquires one platform business, then pursues bolt-on acquisitions toward a PE-style roll-up. This is the consolidation path — buy one, then buy and build.
A route for professionals who want exposure to acquisitions without taking on full operational commitment. This path is on hold while we complete regulatory licensing — get in touch directly if you'd like to discuss it.
Ask us about this →Built by practitioners, for practitioners.
Nowa is a private equity and investment banking professional with deal experience across multiple sectors and geographies. He currently serves as Vice President at DMBL, a US boutique investment bank, having previously worked as an Investment Professional at AfricInvest — one of Africa's largest private equity firms, with c.$2bn in funds under management and over 200 investments and 100 exits — alongside earlier roles at Verdant Capital, Coronation, and Renaissance Capital. He holds a BSc in Economics from Loughborough University, an MSc in Finance from Cranfield School of Management, and is currently pursuing an EMBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Nowa built the CRAFT framework by applying it himself — personally acquiring and rolling up sub-£2M revenue industrial and engineering businesses using the same thesis Primecraft now teaches. He founded Primecraft Partners to coach other buyers through that same playbook, and to help the founders on the other side of the table prepare their businesses for the exit they deserve. He personally leads the Deal Review sessions each cohort runs live, walking members through normalisation, valuation, and the judgement calls that separate a good deal from a bad one.
Vinay is a Partner at Primecraft Partners, focused on acquisition advisory and platform strategy for sub-£2M revenue industrial and engineering services businesses across the UK. He is also the founder of VRB Advisory, a commercial finance brokerage structuring and placing acquisition financing and non-bank funding for property investors and SMEs — a capability he brings directly into Primecraft deals. His background spans Goldman Sachs and Cantor Fitzgerald, giving him institutional finance experience on both the buyer and seller sides of every transaction.
Whether you're a buyer ready to start your search or a founder weighing your options for exit, the first conversation costs nothing but 30 minutes.