JOHN CLOSE & SON LIMITED
🌳Matureactive
00446639 · ltd · incorporated 1947-12-15
Investment thesis
Well-run mature business — low negotiation leverage; premium likely.
Why interesting: Textbook target; clean filings, stable trading.
Why risky: No pressure on seller; any deal likely at full price.
Opportunity decay
approaching window · 12-months
Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.
- · Oldest live charge 34.1y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 01500
Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Investor take
PursueActive trading company with a 80-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.
Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 80). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 1 live charge(s) created 15+ years ago — likely paid but undischarged. Clean register. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).
🏦
Refinance opportunity
1 live charge · oldest 34.1y
65/100
clean up first
Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.
- · Oldest live charge is 34.1 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.
Data confidence
Overall: medium (79/100)Adequate coverage. AI outputs are reliable for the sections scored high; verify the rest in diligence.
Company profile
address, 1 SIC codes, incorporation date
100
Financials
2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed
75
Lenders & charges
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
6 officers (3 active, 6 linked, 4 with DOB)
83
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
1 connected companies via shared directors
48
Filing history
96 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
82/100Exceptional
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional
Strong composite across quality, acquirability, and risk. High-priority target — progress to serious diligence.
Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
80
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
85
Few red flags.
Signal strength
100
Good data coverage for analysis.
Key financials
2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accountsCash
—
Net Worth
—
Current Assets
—
Current Liabilities
—
Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series
Financials
Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown| Metric | 2025-03-31 | 2024-03-31 |
|---|---|---|
| Average employees | 0 | 0 |
Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.
🔒Filing-note intelligence
1 signal 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
0
filings
Last 90 days
0
filings
Last 180 days
0
filings
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand
- 2025-09-23📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2024-09-12📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2023-12-21📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2022-12-21📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2021-12-22📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2021-03-11📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2021-02-11📄change-to-a-person-with-significant-controlpersons-with-significant-control · PSC04
- 2021-02-11📄change-person-director-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH01
- 2021-01-05📄change-person-secretary-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH03
- 2021-01-05📄change-person-director-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH01
- 2021-01-05📄change-to-a-person-with-significant-controlpersons-with-significant-control · PSC04
- 2019-12-30📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2019-01-30📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2017-12-20📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2017-02-10📍change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-addressaddress · AD01
- 2016-12-29📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2005-01-19➕CLOSE, Rob Wilson appointedsecretary
- 2005-01-19➖CLOSE, Rosalind Evelyn resignedsecretary
- 2005-01-19➖CLOSE, Rosalind Evelyn resigneddirector
- 1996-01-12➕CLOSE, Rob Wilson appointeddirector
- 1996-01-09➖CLOSE, Margaret Elizabeth resigneddirector
- 1992-04-22🔒Charge registered #1Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
- 1947-12-15🏢Company incorporatedAs JOHN CLOSE & SON LIMITED
Owner dependency
100/100
Critical — business is the founderThe business appears inseparable from the founder. Acquisition without a serious earn-out or meaningful transition period would likely destroy value.
FACTORS
- +Two-director setup: Only two active directors — typical of owner-managed SMEs but limits succession.
- +Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "CLOSE" — strong identity link between founder and business.
- +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 30 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
- +Founder age: Director aged approximately 80 — succession pressure is live.
- +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.
Succession & seller-readiness
96/100
Likely off-market candidateStrong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.
SIGNALS
- primaryFounder aged 70+: Senior director is approximately 80 years old. Natural succession window is now.
- secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
- primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 30 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
- secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 78 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
cleanNo red flags detected from available public data. (This is not a clean bill of health — detailed accounts review still recommended.)
Shareholders & ownership
2 active beneficial owners| Name | Shares | Voting rights | Nature of control | Notified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mr Peter Wilson Close Individual · British · DOB 05/1946 · age 80 | 50–75% | 50–75% | 50-75% shares · 50-75% voting | 06/04/2016 |
Mr Rob Wilson Close Individual · British · DOB 10/1973 · age 53 | 25–50% | 25–50% | 25-50% shares · 25-50% voting | 06/04/2016 |
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 →Similar companies
Active · Agriculture · TD postcode area| Company | Est. value | Turnover | Net worth | Staff | Age | Opp | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FORD & ETAL FARMS 1994 LIMITED→ 02968719 · est 1994 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 31y | — | — |
| HIGHFIELD FARMING LIMITED→ 03525485 · est 1998 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 28y | — | — |
| HOARDWEEL FARMING LIMITED→ 01370204 · est 1978 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 47y | — | — |
| J.J. HOMES LIMITED→ 07068190 · est 2009 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 16y | — | — |
| J.W. & N.J. STOKOE LIMITED→ 12825486 · est 2020 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 5y | — | — |
| JAMES STRAUGHAN & SONS LIMITED→ 00204102 · est 1925 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 101y | — | — |
| JSW ACCESS & TREE SERVICES LIMITED→ 12223460 · est 2019 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 6y | — | — |
| KEVIN COWE LTD→ 09449418 · est 2015 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 11y | — | — |
| L & S E NIELSEN LIMITED→ 04617024 · est 2002 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 23y | — | — |
| L.C. SMALES & SON LIMITED→ 06788163 · est 2009 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 17y | — | — |
| LADYKIRK ESTATES LIMITED→ SC015891 · est 1930 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 96y | — | — |
| LAND CUSTODIANS LTD→ SC657661 · est 2020 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 6y | — | — |
Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →
🔒Tailored diligence questions
7 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.
See pricing →Company details
Statusactive
Typeltd
Incorporated1947-12-15
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC01500 — SIC 01500
Registered office
17 Walkergate
Berwick-Upon-Tweed
Northumberland
TD15 1DJ
United Kingdom
Filing status
Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-11-26
Last: 2025-11-12
Officers (3 active · 3 resigned)
Active
Active
CLOSE, Rob Wilson→
Activedirector · ~53y · appointed 1996-01-12
View their other companies + combined net worth →
CLOSE, Rosalind Evelyn→
Resignedsecretary · resigned 2005-01-19
CLOSE, Margaret Elizabeth→
Resigneddirector · ~119y · resigned 1996-01-09
CLOSE, Rosalind Evelyn→
Resigneddirector · ~77y · resigned 2005-01-19
Click a director name to see their full track record across all companies.
Mortgages & charges
1
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
| Type | Properties | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| outstanding | Lloyds Banking Group The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC | Debenture | 1 property | 22/04/1992 | — |
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.
Recent filings (96 total)
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-11-12
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-09-23
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-01-06
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-09-12
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-12-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-01-05
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-12-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-01-12
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-12-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-03-11
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2021-02-11
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2021-02-11
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-01-07
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2021-01-05