Welcome to a new installment of “Stories of Opening Up Equity,” the series that shares, in the entrepreneurs’ own words, their experiences and best practices in capital matching.
| Company size: | Medium-sized enterprise |
| Sector: | Manufacturing |
Brief company description
MEBA BIORESINE SB Srl is founded on the union of MEBA SAS, a historic company active in the production of resin materials for the fashion and design world, and AXIAINVESTMENT Srl, an investment company in the form of a club deal established with the support of AXIA-NET, a firm specialized in engaging temporary managers.
The company is distinguished today by its production of certified bio-based materials and finished components, with a premium positioning oriented toward the premium and luxury segment, and increasingly focused on sustainability, transparency, and short supply chains. The path undertaken is guided by progressive vertical integration of the offering and continuous research and development activity, key elements to support the evolution of the market and reference brands.
How was Meba Bioresine SB Srl founded and what does it do?
MEBA SAS was founded as a family business, with a strong manufacturing vocation and specialization in the production of polyester resin sheets and rods primarily intended for the button industry. For decades we operated as an industrial partner for processors and manufacturers, building highly vertical technical expertise.
In recent years we have undertaken an important sustainability-oriented journey, developing—uniquely in Europe—a biopolymer derived from renewable sources and certified, designed for the fashion and design market, which has begun to demand solutions with these characteristics.
Today this experience represents the foundation on which we have built a broader evolution toward sustainable materials and finished products.
What were the motivations for which you decided to undertake the path of opening up equity?
The choice stems from a strategic need: to accelerate a transformation process already underway. The market today demands innovation, certified sustainability, and the ability to engage directly with brands. To address this phase requires resources, experience, and structure.
Opening up equity allowed us to combine entrepreneurial dimension with a more industrial and financial logic, while maintaining continuity in leadership and values. To grow and move beyond an exclusively family-based logic, the support of a new partner capable of bringing greater structure, organization, and the ability to plan significant multi-year investments was necessary.
Furthermore, in family businesses a difficulty can emerge in decision-making processes, related to the absence of a clearly recognized decision center: the entry of an external partner has contributed to making the process more defined, rapid, and effective.
What are the most difficult things to face before and after?
In the pre-phase, the main difficulty is cultural: accepting to question a model that has worked for years and translate it into a language understandable to external investors. It also means preparing employees for change and, no less important, accompanying the entire family in accepting a new phase after years of autonomous management.
In the post-phase, the challenge becomes execution: rapidly transforming plans into results, while managing greater complexity, reporting, and expectations. On a personal level, the way of working also changes significantly: one must relate to new figures within the structure and share steps and decisions that were previously made in complete autonomy.
An important aspect in equity opening operations is certainly that related to governance—how did you address it in your case?
We worked to build clear governance, with defined roles and a balance between entrepreneurial vision and managerial discipline.
The introduction of a structured board of directors and formal moments of discussion has improved the quality of decisions, without compromising operational flexibility.
The key was to see governance not as a constraint, but as a tool for growth and control. Operationally, one quickly realizes that sharing responsibilities represents an enormous driver: it allows distributing the weight of decisions, integrating different points of view, and reducing the risk that strategic choices depend exclusively on the intuition of the individual entrepreneur.
Strengths and weaknesses: what are the main differences between a financial partner and an industrial partner?
The financial partner brings method, discipline, and strong attention to value creation in the medium term. They are less operationally involved, but highly focused on numbers, processes, and scalability.
The industrial partner, instead, contributes operational expertise, market knowledge, and concrete synergies, but may have a vision more oriented toward their own business.
Beyond the differences, the most interesting aspect is the continuous exchange of expertise that is created: the entrepreneur brings market knowledge, intuition, and experience built over time; managers contribute method and tools, working to identify the most effective path to achieve objectives. It is precisely in this balance that value is generated.
From entrepreneur to entrepreneur: advice for approaching equity opening operations.
Arrive prepared and, above all, have a clear project in which to believe deeply—almost contagiously.
Not only in the numbers, but in the vision: knowing where you want to go, why, and being truly convinced of the objective. It is this conviction that allows aligning the right people along the path.
Opening up equity is not a finish line, but the beginning of a more complex and structured phase, which requires greater discipline and execution capacity, but which can prove extremely stimulating and exciting.
