How does a CFO help revive a heritage brand, build a manufacturing business from a blank sheet, and navigate sudden shocks like overnight tariff changes?
In this episode of The CFO Playbook, David McClelland is joined by Andy Mullineaux, CFO at Moke International, the British manufacturer reviving the iconic 1960s open-top vehicle as a fully electric, road-legal car built in Leamington Spa.
Andy shares the unlikely origin story of Moke – a failed military project from the 1950s that became a jet-set favourite in the Caribbean and Saint-Tropez before being shelved by British Leyland, then revived five years ago after a phone call from a St Barts hotelier. He explains what it takes to rebuild a much-loved heritage brand from scratch: re-engineering for modern homologation, switching to electric, and earning the right to be the custodian of a name that carries decades of nostalgic memory.
A central theme of the conversation is how Andy has built a deliberately lean finance function. Rather than copy and paste the back-office structure of larger automotive businesses, he has pushed finance-like activities into operational functions, kept systems off-the-shelf, and avoided the baggage of legacy infrastructure. The result is a finance leader who spends weekends in the warehouse sorting indicator stalks – and who is candid about why that closeness matters in a scale-up, even if it is not sustainable forever.
Andy also offers a pragmatic view on AI in finance. Rather than guessing what the tools will look like in twelve months, he focuses on getting the inputs clean and the right questions defined – on the basis that whatever sits in the middle will work better with both. He explains why hallucinations tend to appear where data has gaps, and why good housekeeping today is the best preparation for whatever comes next.
The episode traces Andy’s route from delivering groceries for Waitrose to PwC, then to McLaren – where he arrived in 2019, helped rebuild the group’s consolidated business plan from scratch, and presented it to the board in January 2020, four weeks before the world changed. He reflects on the value of asking questions other people are too proud to ask, why finance leaders should be comfortable being uncomfortable, and how to think clearly about risk when the downside actually arrives.
Andy also discusses the impact of US automotive tariffs on Moke’s 2025 plans, the value of customer goodwill when pricing has to move, and what the arrival of new CEO Lorne – formerly of Brompton Bicycles – means for the next phase of the business.
Andy’s CFO Playbook principle: Get yourself a rubber duck. Explaining a problem out loud – to a colleague, or even an inanimate object – is often what unlocks the answer.
CFO as Pragmatist: A Leadership Checklist
The best CFOs aren’t just number crunchers. They’re curious, connected, and willing to get their hands dirty. Andy Mullineaux built his approach on lean structures, honest data, and the kind of presence that keeps finance rooted in reality. This checklist gives you seven practical principles to sharpen your leadership, simplify how your team operates, and make better decisions, whatever your company’s size or sector.