ASHWATER FORGE AND FOUNDRY LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
01593293 · ltd · incorporated 1981-10-26
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 28.6y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Sept 2024
Net worth
£3.6k
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 25990
Sector: Manufacturing
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 64-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 64). 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 · 2 lenders · oldest 28.6y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 28.6 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Two lenders — manageable, but coordination required.
  • · 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
9 officers (3 active, 9 linked, 6 with DOB)
83
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
117 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 declared
Positive net assets
Net assets £3,558

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
—
Net Worth
£4k
↑ 54% YoY
Current Assets
£67k
↑ 3.1% YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£13k£27k£40k£54k£67kSept 2023Sept 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2024-09-302023-09-30
Total assets£6.8k£22.1k
Current assets£66.9k£64.9k
Net assets£3.6k£2.3k

Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.

Recent activity

Last 30 days
0
filings
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (31 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-06-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-06-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-08-09
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  4. 2022-09-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  5. 2021-09-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  6. 2020-06-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  7. 2019-07-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  8. 2018-06-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  9. 2017-06-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  10. 2016-06-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  11. 2016-05-03
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  12. 2015-06-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  13. 2015-05-01
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  14. 2014-06-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2014-05-01
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  16. 2005-07-06
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #2
  17. 2005-06-20
    ➕
    CARTWRIGHT, Alison Elisabeth appointed
    secretary
  18. 2005-06-20
    ➕
    CARTWRIGHT, Alison Elisabeth appointed
    director
  19. 2005-06-20
    ➕
    CARTWRIGHT, Mark John appointed
    director
  20. 2005-06-20
    ➖
    SMITH, Elizabeth resigned
    secretary
  21. 2005-06-20
    ➖
    SMITH, Christopher resigned
    director
  22. 2005-06-20
    ➖
    SMITH, Trevor resigned
    director
  23. 2001-12-28
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
  24. 1997-11-14
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: National Westminster Bank PLC
  25. 1993-09-01
    ➕
    SMITH, Christopher appointed
    director
  26. 1992-07-31
    ➕
    SMITH, Elizabeth appointed
    secretary
  27. 1992-07-31
    ➖
    WHEELDON, Anne Elizabeth resigned
    secretary
  28. 1992-07-31
    ➕
    SMITH, Trevor appointed
    director
  29. 1992-07-31
    ➖
    WHEELDON, Anne Elizabeth resigned
    director
  30. 1992-07-31
    ➖
    WHEELDON, Jeffrey Keith resigned
    director
  31. 1981-10-26
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ASHWATER FORGE AND FOUNDRY LIMITED

Owner dependency

84/100
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
  • +Two-director setup: Only two active directors — typical of owner-managed SMEs but limits succession.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 21 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 64 — approaching natural succession window.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

86/100
Likely off-market candidate

Strong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.

SIGNALS
  • primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 64. 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 21 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 45 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
Mr Mark John Cartwright
Individual · British · DOB 09/1962 · age 64
25–50%
—25-50% shares01/07/2016

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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Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →
🔒Tailored diligence questions

6 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
Incorporated1981-10-26
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC25990 — SIC 25990

Registered office

Unit 4 Woodbury Business Park
Woodbury
Exeter
Devon
EX5 1AY

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-06-30
Last made up to: 2024-09-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-05-07
Last: 2026-04-23

Officers (3 active · 6 resigned)

CARTWRIGHT, Alison Elisabeth→
secretary · appointed 2005-06-20
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
CARTWRIGHT, Alison Elisabeth→
director · ~63y · appointed 2005-06-20
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
CARTWRIGHT, Mark John→
director · ~64y · appointed 2005-06-20
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
SMITH, Elizabeth→
secretary · appointed 1992-07-31 · resigned 2005-06-20
Resigned
WHEELDON, Anne Elizabeth→
secretary · resigned 1992-07-31
Resigned
SMITH, Christopher→
director · ~55y · appointed 1993-09-01 · resigned 2005-06-20
Resigned
SMITH, Trevor→
director · ~87y · appointed 1992-07-31 · resigned 2005-06-20
Resigned
WHEELDON, Anne Elizabeth→
director · ~84y · resigned 1992-07-31
Resigned
WHEELDON, Jeffrey Keith→
director · ~89y · resigned 1992-07-31
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
Guarantee & debenture1 property28/12/200106/07/2005
outstanding
National Westminster Bank
National Westminster Bank PLC
Legal mortgage1 property14/11/1997—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (117 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-05-11
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-06-25
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-04-30
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-06-28
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-05-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-08-09
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-05-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-09-29
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-04-26
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-09-14
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-04-29
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-06-29
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-05-07
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2019-07-26
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-05-02