ALFRED HEADING & SONS LIMITED
🌳Matureactive
00530843 · ltd · incorporated 1954-03-24
Investment thesis
Established operating company — standard diligence applies, no dominant angle.
Why interesting: Live, filing, normal profile.
Why risky: No standout signals in either direction.
Opportunity decay
approaching window · 12-months
Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.
- · Oldest live charge 44.0y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
79/100
Strong
What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 01500
Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Investor take
PursueActive trading company with a 89-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.
Opportunity 79/100 (strong), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (68/100, director aged 89). 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 (73/100).
🏦
Refinance opportunity
1 live charge · oldest 44.0y
65/100
clean up first
Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.
- · Oldest live charge is 44.0 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 (78/100)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
4 officers (2 active, 4 linked, 3 with DOB)
85
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
92 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
79/100Strong
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional
Solid opportunity signal. Worth a dedicated memo and management meeting.
Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
70
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 · FRS 102| Metric | 2025-03-31 | 2024-03-31 |
|---|---|---|
| Average employees | 200 | 200 |
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
0
filings
Last 90 days
0
filings
Last 180 days
2
filings
- • 1 persons-with-significant-control
- • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (19 events)Click to expand
- 2026-01-20📄notification-of-a-person-with-significant-controlpersons-with-significant-control · PSC01
- 2025-12-17📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2024-12-13📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2023-12-22📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2023-09-19📄change-person-director-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH01
- 2022-12-20📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2021-12-29📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2021-03-24📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2019-12-23📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2019-01-09📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2018-01-04📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2017-01-10📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2016-01-12📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2015-10-01📄annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholdersannual-return · AR01
- 2015-01-13📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2009-01-19➖HEADING, Margaret Mary resignedsecretary
- 2009-01-19➖HEADING, Margaret Mary resigneddirector
- 1982-06-11🔒Charge registered #1Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
- 1954-03-24🏢Company incorporatedAs ALFRED HEADING & SONS LIMITED
Owner dependency
96/100
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 "HEADING" — strong identity link between founder and business.
- +Founder age: Director aged approximately 89 — succession pressure is live.
- +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.
Succession & seller-readiness
76/100
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 89 years old. Natural succession window is now.
- secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
- secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 72 years old and no new directors in the last 3 years — succession not yet being planned internally.
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 Edward John Heading Individual · British · DOB 07/1961 · age 65 | 25–50% | 25–50% | 25-50% shares · 25-50% voting | 19/01/2026 |
Mr David Alfred Heading Individual · British · DOB 05/1937 · age 89 | 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.
Similar companies
Active · Agriculture · IP postcode area| Company | Est. value | Turnover | Net worth | Staff | Age | Opp | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARCHAEAN LTD→ 15148537 · est 2023 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 2y | — | — |
| AURORA SHIHTZU LTD→ 17112927 · est 2026 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| AVANTUS MARKETING SERVICES UK LIMITED→ 14926364 · est 2023 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 2y | — | — |
| AWARD SPRAY SERVICES LIMITED→ 04551625 · est 2002 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 23y | — | — |
| AYA FARMING LIMITED→ 12722748 · est 2020 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 5y | — | — |
| B H GRAIN & STORAGE LTD→ 16630267 · est 2025 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| B.ENGLISH & SON LIMITED→ 00721911 · est 1962 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 63y | — | — |
| B.L.MITCHAM & SON LIMITED→ 00515410 · est 1953 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 73y | — | — |
| BACONS ENTERPRISE LTD→ 16250934 · est 2025 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 1y | — | — |
| BADDELEY FARMS LIMITED→ 00742405 · est 1962 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 63y | — | — |
| BARTON PLACE TRADING COMPANY LTD.→ 03522587 · est 1998 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 28y | — | — |
| BARTON STALLIONS LIMITED→ 13270594 · est 2021 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 5y | — | — |
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
Incorporated1954-03-24
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC01500 — SIC 01500
Registered office
Tiki Water Lane
Barnham
Thetford
Norfolk
IP24 2NA
Filing status
Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-10-01
Last: 2025-09-17
Officers (2 active · 2 resigned)
Active
Active
HEADING, Margaret Mary→
Resignedsecretary · resigned 2009-01-19
HEADING, Margaret Mary→
Resigneddirector · ~88y · resigned 2009-01-19
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 | Barclays Barclays Bank PLC | Debenture | 1 property | 11/06/1982 | — |
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.
Recent filings (92 total)
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
2026-01-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-12-17
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-10-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-12-13
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-09-26
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-22
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-09-28
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-09-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-12-20
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-09-30
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-12-29
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-10-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-03-24
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-10-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-12-23