How we got here
Advocate Pros started in 2017 when our founding director, Callum Rennie, left a 15-year career in corporate finance to advise the kind of businesses he actually liked working with: owner-managed firms with real products, real employees and real cash-flow pressures.
The first client was a family-run joinery workshop in Dundee that had grown to £2.4m in revenue but was losing money on almost half its contracts because nobody had reviewed job costing in six years. Within three months, we restructured their quoting process, renegotiated timber supply agreements and introduced weekly margin reviews. The business returned to profit that same financial year.
That pattern repeated. Word spread among trade associations and accountancy practices in eastern Scotland, and by 2019 we had a small team and a waiting list. We have since completed projects in hospitality, logistics, food manufacturing, professional services and construction.
What we believe
Our mission is straightforward: help Scottish businesses make better decisions with better information. That sounds simple, but in practice it means doing things many consultancies avoid, like telling a client their pet project is losing money, or recommending they hire a finance director before they hire more salespeople.
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Honesty over comfort
We will tell you what we see in the numbers, even when the answer is uncomfortable. A consultant who only confirms what you already believe is not worth the fee.
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Results you can count
Every engagement starts with a measurable target: a revenue number, a cost reduction, a cash-flow improvement. If we cannot define success in numbers, we push back on the brief until we can.
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Stay until it sticks
Recommendations are easy. Implementation is where most advisory relationships fail. We remain involved through the execution phase and check in at 90 days post-completion to see whether the change held.
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Small teams, senior people
The person who pitches the work is the same person who delivers it. We do not delegate your project to junior analysts you have never met.
The team
We keep our headcount deliberately small. Every member has at least a decade of hands-on experience in finance, operations or commercial strategy, and each one has run or co-owned a business at some point. That matters because it changes how you read a balance sheet when your own name was on the bank guarantee.
Callum Rennie
Founding director. Former corporate finance manager at a mid-tier accountancy firm. Callum has advised on over 80 engagements since founding the practice, with a particular focus on manufacturing and food production businesses.
Eilidh Mackay
Operations lead. Eilidh spent 12 years in supply-chain management for a national grocery distributor before joining us. She leads our efficiency and workflow-improvement projects and has a knack for spotting process waste that hides in plain sight.
Arun Patel
Financial strategist. Chartered accountant with experience in restructuring and turnaround work. Arun built and sold a small SaaS company before returning to advisory, so he understands both sides of the table when negotiating with investors and creditors.
Key milestones
2017 — Founded
Callum Rennie registered the firm and took on the first three clients, all in Tayside. Revenue in year one was modest, but every project delivered a measurable return.
2019 — Team of three
Eilidh and Arun joined. We moved into a shared workspace in Edinburgh and expanded our service range to include operational efficiency audits.
2021 — 50th project completed
Despite the disruption of the pandemic, we completed our 50th engagement. Several of those projects involved emergency cash-flow restructuring for hospitality clients.
2023 — 100 projects, 70% referral rate
We passed 100 completed engagements. A client survey that year showed 70% of new enquiries came through direct referrals from previous clients.
2025 — Succession and exit planning launch
We formally added succession and exit planning to our service line after handling a growing number of ad-hoc requests from business owners approaching retirement.