Client Stories — Camellia Core Advisory

What clients tell us

Helen walked our board through the due diligence checklist three months before we engaged lawyers. When the acquirer's team arrived, we had every contract indexed and every financial variance explained. That preparation alone justified the engagement.

Richard Mawson Managing Director, Mawson Engineering Supplies, Newcastle NSW

The stakeholder sessions were uncomfortable at times — and that was the point. My brother and I had been avoiding the conversation about what the sale meant for staff who had been with us twenty years. Camellia Core gave us a framework to have it properly.

Sandra Whitfield Co-owner, Whitfield Agricultural Services, Wagga Wagga NSW

Post-merger integration was harder than we expected, even with a friendly acquirer. The weekly advisory calls during the first quarter kept our leadership team from making reactive decisions. I wish we had started the engagement earlier, honestly.

David Okonkwo Former CEO, Peninsula Logistics Group, Geelong VIC

We engaged Camellia Core for a readiness review when a larger competitor made an approach. The report showed us we had gaps in our IP documentation and customer contract assignments. Fixing those before negotiations began strengthened our position considerably.

Jennifer Lau Founder, Lau Precision Components, Adelaide SA

Marcus was on-site for our day-one announcement and the first leadership team meeting. Having someone in the room who had seen integrations go wrong — and right — gave our retained managers confidence to ask questions they might not have raised with the acquirer's team directly.

Tom Bradley Operations Director, Bradley & Sons Transport, Ballarat VIC

The fee felt significant for a firm our size, and I questioned it at the time. In retrospect, the cost of being unprepared during due diligence would have been far higher. The readiness report became our roadmap for the six months before signing.

Margaret O'Brien Owner, O'Brien Family Pharmacy Group, Hobart TAS

Extended account: Whitfield Agricultural Services

Family-owned agribusiness · Wagga Wagga NSW · Stakeholder Alignment + Readiness Review

Preparing a third-generation handover

Whitfield Agricultural Services had operated in the Riverina for forty years. Sandra Whitfield and her brother Michael held equal shares, inherited from their father who remained on the board as a non-executive director. When a national agribusiness group expressed interest in acquiring a majority stake, the siblings discovered they had never discussed what the transaction would mean for their father, their staff, or their respective futures.

Camellia Core conducted a Merger Readiness Review first, identifying that customer contracts lacked formal assignment clauses and that the firm's equipment valuation records were incomplete. Simultaneously, we facilitated four stakeholder alignment sessions: one with the siblings, one including their father, one with the senior management team, and a final session with the full board.

The alignment sessions surfaced a key issue: Michael wanted to remain in an operational role post-transaction, while Sandra preferred a clean exit. Documenting these positions early allowed the family's legal advisers to structure options that addressed both preferences. The transaction completed fourteen months after our initial engagement.

Extended account: Peninsula Logistics Group

Regional logistics · Geelong VIC · Post-Merger Transition Advisory

Ninety days after a friendly acquisition

Peninsula Logistics Group, a family-owned freight operator with 85 staff, was acquired by a national logistics company. David Okonkwo remained as CEO of the Geelong operation, reporting to a new regional manager based in Melbourne. The acquirer was supportive, but the pace of integration decisions — systems changes, reporting requirements, staff role adjustments — overwhelmed David's team.

Camellia Core's Post-Merger Transition Advisory began the week after closing. Marcus Tan attended the day-one staff briefing and joined weekly leadership team calls for twelve weeks. Integration checkpoints at 30, 60, and 90 days produced written summaries that David used in his reports to the acquirer's regional management.

Three staff departures in the first month — two voluntary, one prompted by role changes — were managed without the disruption that David had feared. Customer service levels were maintained throughout the transition period. David noted that the advisory support was most valuable in the moments when his team needed to push back on integration timelines that were too aggressive for their operation.