HARRY GIBBS & SONS (UPPER BENTLEY) LIMITED
🌳Matureactive
01048303 · ltd · incorporated 1972-04-04
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.
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
£7.98M
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 01500
Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Investor take
PursueAsset-holding vehicle with a 66-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.
Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 85/100. Strong seller-intent signal (93/100, director aged 66). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Cash flow review and working-capital discipline. Cash down -37% YoY — forensic review of receivables, stock turns, and creditor days. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).
🏦
Refinance opportunity
2 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 50.5y
30/100
under pressure
Refinance would be pressure-driven, not opportunity-driven. Expect tighter margins and covenant scrutiny.
- · Oldest live charge is 50.5 years old — likely at or near maturity.
- · Two lenders — manageable, but coordination required.
- · Cashflow trend is negative — lender view likely cautious.
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
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
5 officers (2 active, 5 linked, 4 with DOB)
86
Ownership & PSC
4 active PSC(s) of 4 total, 4 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
105 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.
Signals from accounts
Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declaredPositive net assets
Net assets £7,978,735
Cash YoY
-37%
Year on year
Key financials
2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accountsCash
£1.1m
↓ 37% YoY
Net Worth
£8.0m
↑ 4.3% YoY
Current Assets
£2.0m
↓ 19% YoY
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Total assets | £8.69M | £8.36M |
| Current assets | £2.04M | £2.51M |
| Cash | £1.09M | £1.72M |
| Debtors | £477.8k | £410.0k |
| Net assets | £7.98M | £7.65M |
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
4
filings
- • 2 persons-with-significant-control
- • 1 confirmation-statement
- • 1 officers
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (27 events)Click to expand
- 2026-02-17📄change-person-director-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH01
- 2026-02-16📄notification-of-a-person-with-significant-controlpersons-with-significant-control · PSC01
- 2026-02-13📄notification-of-a-person-with-significant-controlpersons-with-significant-control · PSC01
- 2025-07-21📄accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridgedaccounts · AA
- 2024-07-26📄accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridgedaccounts · AA
- 2023-08-18📄accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridgedaccounts · AA
- 2023-08-16📄mortgage-satisfy-charge-fullmortgage · MR04
- 2023-08-16📄mortgage-satisfy-charge-fullmortgage · MR04
- 2023-08-16🔓Charge satisfied #2
- 2023-08-16🔓Charge satisfied #1
- 2022-12-28📄change-person-director-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH01
- 2022-12-23📄change-to-a-person-with-significant-controlpersons-with-significant-control · PSC04
- 2022-08-15📄accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridgedaccounts · AA
- 2021-08-17📄accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridgedaccounts · AA
- 2021-03-22📄termination-director-company-with-name-termination-dateofficers · TM01
- 2021-03-22📄termination-director-company-with-name-termination-dateofficers · TM01
- 2021-03-22📄termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-dateofficers · TM02
- 2020-08-14📄accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridgedaccounts · AA
- 2019-10-25📄accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridgedaccounts · AA
- 2010-08-23➖GIBBS, Diana Mary resignedsecretary
- 2010-08-23➖GIBBS, Diana Mary resigneddirector
- 2010-03-19➖GIBBS, Harry resigneddirector
- 1997-09-24➕GIBBS, Martin Richard appointeddirector
- 1997-09-24➕GIBBS, Phillip Harry appointeddirector
- 1992-05-20🔒Charge registered #2Lender: Midland Bank PLC
- 1976-02-05🔒Charge registered #1Lender: Midland Bank LTD
- 1972-04-04🏢Company incorporatedAs HARRY GIBBS & SONS (UPPER BENTLEY) 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 "GIBBS" — strong identity link between founder and business.
- +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 29 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
- +Founder age: Director aged approximately 66 — succession pressure is live.
- +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.
Succession & seller-readiness
86/100
Likely off-market candidateStrong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.
SIGNALS
- primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 66. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
- secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
- primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 29 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
- secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 54 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
4 active beneficial owners · fragmented| Name | Shares | Voting rights | Nature of control | Notified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mr Martin Richard Gibbs Individual · British · DOB 11/1960 · age 66 | — | — | sig. influencesignificant influence | 06/04/2016 |
Mr Phillip Harry Gibbs Individual · British · DOB 01/1963 · age 63 | — | — | sig. influencesignificant influence | 06/04/2016 |
Mr David William Vine Individual · British · DOB 09/1967 · age 59 | — | — | sig. influencesignificant influence | 06/04/2016 |
Mr Matthew John Russell Barker Nla Individual · British · DOB 03/1973 · age 53 | — | — | sig. influencesignificant influence | 06/04/2016 |
From Companies House Persons with Significant Control filings. Share ranges are banded per the public PSC regime.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOXFARMEQUESTRIAN LTD→ 08111586 · est 2012 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 13y | — | — |
| GBEE SHRIMP & AQUATICS LTD→ 14267811 · est 2022 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 3y | — | — |
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| GREEN FARMS (WORCESTERSHIRE) LIMITED→ 02604279 · est 1991 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 34y | — | — |
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| HAYBROOK FARM LIMITED→ 10303685 · est 2016 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 9y | — | — |
| HG TRADING LIMITED→ 11613498 · est 2018 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 7y | — | — |
| HIDDERLEY & SONS (ELFORD) LIMITED→ 02454420 · est 1989 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 36y | — | — |
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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
Incorporated1972-04-04
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC01500 — SIC 01500
Registered office
Upper Bentley Farm, Upper
Bentley, Redditch
Worcestershire
B97 5TD
Filing status
Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-01
Last: 2025-12-18
Officers (2 active · 3 resigned)
GIBBS, Martin Richard→
Activedirector · ~66y · appointed 1997-09-24
View their other companies + combined net worth →
GIBBS, Phillip Harry→
Activedirector · ~63y · appointed 1997-09-24
View their other companies + combined net worth →
GIBBS, Diana Mary→
Resignedsecretary · resigned 2010-08-23
GIBBS, Diana Mary→
Resigneddirector · ~93y · resigned 2010-08-23
GIBBS, Harry→
Resigneddirector · ~95y · resigned 2010-03-19
Click a director name to see their full track record across all companies.
Mortgages & charges
2
Total charges
0
Outstanding
0
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
| Type | Properties | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| satisfied | Midland Bank Midland Bank PLC | Legal charge | 1 property | 20/05/1992 | 16/08/2023 | |
| satisfied | Midland Bank Midland Bank LTD | Mortgage | 1 property | 05/02/1976 | 16/08/2023 |
Recent filings (105 total)
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-02-17
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2026-02-17
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
2026-02-16
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
2026-02-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2025-07-21
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-12-18
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2024-07-26
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-12-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2023-08-18
mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
mortgage · MR04
2023-08-16
mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
mortgage · MR04
2023-08-16
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2022-12-28
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-12-23
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2022-12-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2022-08-15