D.F. MEANWELL LIMITED
🌳Matureactive
01150518 · ltd · incorporated 1973-12-11
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 17.6y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Apr 2025
Net worth
£2.44M
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
What this business does
Primary activity: Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds
Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Investor take
PursueActive trading company with a 69-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.
Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 69). 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 17.6y
65/100
clean up first
Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.
- · Oldest live charge is 17.6 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.
Data confidence
Overall: medium (77/100)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
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
94 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 £2,441,715
Net assets shrinking
Down £99,850 YoY
Cash YoY
+1%
Year on year
Key financials
2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accountsCash
£136
↑ 1.5% YoY
Net Worth
£2.4m
↓ 3.9% YoY
Current Assets
£282k
~ YoY
Current Liabilities
—
Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series
Financials
Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown| Metric | 2025-04-15 | 2024-04-15 |
|---|---|---|
| Total assets | £2.79M | £2.80M |
| Current assets | £282.5k | £284.0k |
| Cash | £136 | £134 |
| Debtors | £30.3k | £22.3k |
| Net assets | £2.44M | £2.54M |
Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.
🔒Filing-note intelligence
2 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
0
filings
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (22 events)Click to expand
- 2025-12-18📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2024-11-28📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2023-12-06📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2022-11-29📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2022-11-03📄change-person-director-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH01
- 2022-05-30📄change-person-director-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH01
- 2021-07-29📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2020-09-08📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2019-10-10📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2019-06-06📄change-person-director-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH01
- 2019-06-06📄change-to-a-person-with-significant-controlpersons-with-significant-control · PSC04
- 2019-06-06📄change-person-secretary-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH03
- 2019-06-06📄change-person-director-company-with-change-dateofficers · CH01
- 2018-08-22📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2017-09-05📄accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entityaccounts · AA
- 2008-12-09🔒Charge registered #1Lender: Hsbc Bank PLC
- 2006-11-10➖MEANWELL, Deryck Frank resigneddirector
- 2006-06-29➕PEPPERDINE, Adam David appointeddirector
- 1993-07-25➕PEPPERDINE, Marian June appointedsecretary
- 1993-07-25➖MEANWELL, Lilian resignedsecretary
- 1993-07-25➖MEANWELL, Lilian resigneddirector
- 1973-12-11🏢Company incorporatedAs D.F. MEANWELL LIMITED
Owner dependency
91/100
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.
- +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 20 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
- +Founder age: Director aged approximately 69 — 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 69. 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 20 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
- secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 53 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
1 active beneficial owner| Name | Shares | Voting rights | Nature of control | Notified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mrs Marian June Pepperdine Individual · British · DOB 06/1957 · age 69 | 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.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BUBBLES DAYCARE (LINCOLN) LIMITED→ 08430466 · est 2013 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 13y | — | — |
| C T ALLIS LIMITED→ 15717217 · est 2024 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 1y | — | — |
| C.A.R. & J.M. STUBBS LTD→ 10301112 · est 2016 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 9y | — | — |
| C.H. CRUST (FARMS) LIMITED→ 01362727 · est 1978 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 48y | — | — |
| CHURCH FARM SWAYFIELD LTD→ 12895571 · est 2020 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 5y | — | — |
| DAWSONS OF SAXILBY LIMITED→ 02021550 · est 1986 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 39y | — | — |
| DEAN FARMING LIMITED→ 02873490 · est 1993 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 32y | — | — |
| DINOSHIRE LIMITED→ 01883985 · est 1985 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 41y | — | — |
| DJH EQUINE TRANSPORT LIMITED→ 16528508 · est 2025 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| DMJ DRAINAGE LIMITED→ 04182351 · est 2001 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 25y | — | — |
| DRAKES FARMING LTD→ 12963256 · est 2020 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 5y | — | — |
| DSB FARMING AND CONTRACTING LIMITED→ 08255004 · est 2012 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 13y | — | — |
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
Incorporated1973-12-11
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC01110 — Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds
Registered office
Grange Farm
High Street Harmston
Lincoln
Lincolnshire
LN5 9SN
Filing status
Accounts
Next due: 2027-01-15
Last made up to: 2025-04-15
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-11-02
Last: 2025-10-19
Officers (3 active · 3 resigned)
PEPPERDINE, Marian June→
Activesecretary · appointed 1993-07-25
View their other companies + combined net worth →
PEPPERDINE, Adam David→
Activedirector · ~43y · appointed 2006-06-29
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MEANWELL, Lilian→
Resignedsecretary · resigned 1993-07-25
MEANWELL, Deryck Frank→
Resigneddirector · ~101y · resigned 2006-11-10
MEANWELL, Lilian→
Resigneddirector · ~108y · resigned 1993-07-25
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 | HSBC Hsbc Bank PLC | Legal mortgage | 1 property | 09/12/2008 | — |
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.
Recent filings (94 total)
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-12-18
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-10-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-11-28
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-10-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-06
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-10-24
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-11-29
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-11-07
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2022-11-03
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2022-05-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-10-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-07-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-10-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-09-08
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-10-21