BATES BROS (FARMS) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
00539386 · ltd · incorporated 1954-10-18
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 37.7y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Jun 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 01500
Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 81-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 81). 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

2 live charges · oldest 37.7y

65/100
clean up first

Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.

  • · Oldest live charge is 37.7 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
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
5 officers (4 active, 5 linked, 4 with DOB)
86
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
1 connected companies via shared directors
48
Filing history
102 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 accounts
Cash
—
Net Worth
—
Current Assets
—
Current Liabilities
—
£0£240k£481k£721k£962k£1.2mJun 2024Jun 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-06-302024-06-30
Total assets—£1.45M
Current assets—£505.4k
Cash—£127.8k
Debtors—£116.9k
Net assets—£1.20M
Average employees5—

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
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
2
filings
  • • 1 accounts
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (22 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-03-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-02-13
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-03-27
    📄
    mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
    mortgage · MR04
  4. 2024-03-27
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #2
  5. 2024-03-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  6. 2023-03-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2022-03-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  8. 2022-01-18
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  9. 2021-03-22
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  10. 2020-03-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  11. 2019-01-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  12. 2018-01-15
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  13. 2018-01-15
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  14. 2018-01-15
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  15. 2018-01-02
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  16. 2017-07-04
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  17. 2015-08-01
    ➖
    BATES, David Graham resigned
    director
  18. 2015-04-27
    ➕
    BATES, Alyson Rosemary appointed
    director
  19. 2007-11-23
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
  20. 1996-07-01
    ➕
    BATES, Alexander Charles David appointed
    director
  21. 1988-08-25
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
  22. 1954-10-18
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As BATES BROS (FARMS) LIMITED

Owner dependency

98/100
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
  • +Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "BATES" — 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 81 — 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 81 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 30 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 72 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

clean
No red flags detected from available public data. (This is not a clean bill of health — detailed accounts review still recommended.)

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mrs Vivien Ann Bates
Individual · British · DOB 07/1945 · age 81
50–75%
50–75%50-75% shares · 50-75% voting06/04/2016

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 →

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16417441 · est 2025 · no financials extracted
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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
Incorporated1954-10-18
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC01500 — SIC 01500

Registered office

Lower Honeydon Farm
Honeydon
Bedford
Bedfordshire
MK44 2LR
England

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-03-31
Last made up to: 2025-06-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-27
Last: 2026-01-13

Officers (4 active · 1 resigned)

BATES, Vivien Ann→
secretary
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BATES, Alexander Charles David→
director · ~58y · appointed 1996-07-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BATES, Alyson Rosemary→
director · ~57y · appointed 2015-04-27
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BATES, Vivien Ann→
director · ~81y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BATES, David Graham→
director · ~84y · resigned 2015-08-01
Resigned

Click a director name to see their full track record across all companies.

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
satisfied
Barclays
Barclays Bank PLC
Legal charge1 property23/11/200727/03/2024
outstanding
Barclays
Barclays Bank PLC
Legal charge1 property25/08/1988—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (102 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-03-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-01-26
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-02-13
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-01-15
mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
mortgage · MR04
2024-03-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2024-03-11
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-03-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-02-10
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2022-03-28
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-01-18
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2022-01-18
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2021-03-22
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-01-18
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2020-03-10