CRANSTONS QUALITY BUTCHERS LIMITED

📈Growthactive

00228917 · ltd · incorporated 1928-03-19

Investment thesis

Growth-phase business — story-led; valuation sensitive to momentum.

Why interesting: Trading is scaling; acquirers paying for trajectory get disproportionate leverage.

Why risky: Price often leads fundamentals; dependency on founder often high.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.

· Oldest live charge 44.6y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

£17.57M

year to Jul 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

79/100

Strong

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 10130

Sector: Manufacturing

ALSO REGISTERED FOR

47220Retail sale of meat and meat products in specialised stores

Investor take

Pursue

Strong opportunity: leverage-led grower with strong profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 79/100 (strong), bankability 80/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 3 live charge(s) created 15+ years ago — likely paid but undischarged. Clean register. Most likely exit: strategic trade sale (78/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

6 live charges · oldest 44.6y

75/100

ready

Refinance conversation should be productive — structure clean and timing right.

· Oldest live charge is 44.6 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Legal-friction score 25/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.
· Profitable and stable/growing — lender coverage supportable.

Data confidence

Overall: high (80/100)

Strong data coverage across all sections. AI outputs should be trusted with minimal caveats.

Company profile

address, 2 SIC codes, incorporation date

100

Financials

2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed

Lenders & charges

6 charges (6/6 with lender, 6/6 with type)

Directors & officers

13 officers (7 active, 13 linked, 11 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared

Director network

2 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

125 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

🔒Estimated company valuation

Sector-multiple EBITDA, turnover, and NAV-proxy valuation range with confidence tier — derived from extracted iXBRL financials.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

Opportunity Score

79/100Strong

PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional

Solid opportunity signal. Worth a dedicated memo and management meeting.

Business quality

Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.

Acquirability

Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.

Risk profile

Few red flags.

Signal strength

100

Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · FRS 102

Profitable

Profit before tax £1,023,939

Turnover YoY

+9%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

—

Current Assets

—

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102

Metric	2025-07-31	2024-07-31
Turnover	£17.57M	£16.14M
Gross profit	£8.98M	£8.12M
Operating profit	£906.8k	£143.1k
Profit before tax	£1.02M	£260.2k
Average employees	24000	22400

Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.

🔒Filing-note intelligence

3 signals detected in this company's narrative notes — going-concern language, audit opinion, contingent liabilities, related-party transactions.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

Recent activity

Last 30 days

filings

Last 90 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 officers

Last 180 days

filings

• 2 officers
• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (42 events)Click to expand

2026-03-19
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2026-03-06
📄
replacement-filing-of-director-appointment-with-name
officers · RP01AP01
2026-02-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2025-10-10
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2025-10-10
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2025-04-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2025-03-31
➖
LAW, David John resigned
director
2024-09-16
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2024-03-07
➖
JONES, Martin John resigned
director
2023-12-15
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2022-12-29
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2022-11-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2022-11-01
➕
SILBURN, Jane Elizabeth appointed
director
2022-01-18
📄
memorandum-articles
incorporation · MA
2022-01-18
📄
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2022-01-17
📄
capital-variation-of-rights-attached-to-shares
capital · SH10
2022-01-17
📄
capital-name-of-class-of-shares
capital · SH08
2021-12-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2021-12-02
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2021-12-02
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2021-08-01
➕
WILSON, Melanie Claire appointed
director
2021-08-01
➕
LAW, David John appointed
director
2021-04-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2018-12-14
➖
WATT, Charles Edward resigned
director
2018-08-20
🔓
Charge satisfied #5
2011-10-03
➕
JONES, Martin John appointed
director
2009-05-01
➕
WATT, Charles Edward appointed
director
2007-07-01
➕
CRANSTON, Roger James appointed
secretary
2007-06-30
➖
CRANSTON, Elizabeth Bowman resigned
secretary
2007-06-30
➖
CRANSTON, Elizabeth Bowman resigned
director
1999-07-16
🔒
Charge registered #6
Lender: Midland Bank PLC
1999-03-16
➖
CRANSTON, James Edmondson resigned
director
1997-04-10
🔒
Charge registered #5
Lender: Midland Bank PLC
1996-04-13
🔓
Charge satisfied #4
1996-04-13
🔓
Charge satisfied #3
1994-04-01
➕
CRANSTON, Elizabeth Sarah appointed
director
1994-04-01
➕
CRANSTON, Margaret Ruth appointed
director
1988-08-01
🔒
Charge registered #4
Lender: Midland Bank PLC
1981-11-10
🔒
Charge registered #3
Lender: Midland Bank PLC
1981-11-10
🔒
Charge registered #2
Lender: Midland Bank PLC
1981-11-10
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Midland Bank PLC
1928-03-19
🏢
Company incorporated
As CRANSTONS QUALITY BUTCHERS LIMITED

Owner dependency

88/100

Critical — business is the founder

The business appears inseparable from the founder. Acquisition without a serious earn-out or meaningful transition period would likely destroy value.

FACTORS

-6 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "CRANSTON" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 32 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 72 — succession pressure is live.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

90/100

Likely off-market candidate

Strong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.

SIGNALS

primaryFounder aged 70+: Senior director is approximately 72 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 32 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 98 years old and no new directors in the last 3 years — succession not yet being planned internally.
supportingClean filings + long tenure: Disciplined long-tenure operator — classic lifestyle-business pattern that often sells quietly.

Red flags

1 med ·

Charge satisfaction-then-recreation pattern

medium

Multiple instances where a charge was satisfied and a new charge created within 6 months. Suggests active refinancing cycle.

Shareholders & ownership

2 active beneficial owners

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Philip John Cranston Individual · British · DOB 11/1957 · age 69	50–75%	50–75%	board control50-75% shares · 50-75% voting · board control	28/12/2016
Mr Roger James Cranston Individual · British · DOB 04/1955 · age 71	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	28/12/2016

From Companies House Persons with Significant Control filings. Share ranges are banded per the public PSC regime.

🔒Co-director network graph

Radial SVG graph showing every company connected via shared directors, colour-coded by status.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

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Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →

🔒Tailored diligence questions

8 specific questions generated from this company's actual signals — liquidity, leverage, director age, charge count, red flags, age-of-company.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

🔒Advanced scoring suite

Exit-route ranking, improvement thesis, quiet-distress detector, covenant-pressure proxy, extraction monitor, approaching triggers, ownership drift, local cluster, value trap, debt capacity, archetype classification — 48+ scoring modules.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

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Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated1928-03-19

Jurisdictionengland-wales

Primary SIC10130 — SIC 10130

Registered office

Ullswater Road

Penrith

Cumbria

CA11 7EH

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-04-30

Last made up to: 2025-07-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-01-02

Last: 2025-12-19