BLACK LION PRESS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
01602574 · ltd · incorporated 1981-12-08
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 33.2y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Jan 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 17230
Sector: Manufacturing
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 83-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 83). 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 33.2y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 33.2 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
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
3 officers (2 active, 3 linked, 2 with DOB)
83
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 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£0£0£0£0£0Jan 2024Jan 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-01-312024-01-31
Average employees6600

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 confirmation-statement
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (18 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-11-15
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  2. 2025-10-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  3. 2025-01-06
    📄
    termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM02
  4. 2024-12-31
    ➖
    STOKES, Linda resigned
    secretary
  5. 2024-10-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  6. 2023-09-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  7. 2022-09-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  8. 2021-10-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  9. 2021-01-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-10-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  11. 2018-10-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  12. 2017-10-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  13. 2017-07-19
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  14. 2016-10-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2015-09-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  16. 2008-10-27
    ➕
    STOKES, Mark Lawrence appointed
    director
  17. 1993-06-01
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: National Westminster Bank PLC
  18. 1981-12-08
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As BLACK LION PRESS LIMITED

Owner dependency

91/100
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 18 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 83 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

89/100
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 83 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 18 years.
  • 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

2 active beneficial owners · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Robert Douglas Stokes
Individual · British · DOB 08/1943 · age 83
75–100%
—75-100% shares19/07/2017
Mr Robert Douglas Stokes
Individual · British · DOB 08/1943 · age 83
50–75%
—50-75% shares22/07/2016

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

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
Incorporated1981-12-08
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC17230 — SIC 17230

Registered office

9 Orchard Industrial Estate
Parkwood
Maidstone
Kent
ME15 9YE

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-10-31
Last made up to: 2025-01-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-07-24
Last: 2026-07-10

Officers (2 active · 1 resigned)

STOKES, Mark Lawrence→
director · ~56y · appointed 2008-10-27
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
STOKES, Robert Douglas→
director · ~83y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
STOKES, Linda→
secretary · resigned 2024-12-31
Resigned

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
TypeProperties
outstanding
National Westminster Bank
National Westminster Bank PLC
Mortgage debenture1 property01/06/1993—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (102 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-07-13
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-11-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-10-31
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-07-10
termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM02
2025-01-06
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-10-28
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-07-16
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-09-20
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-07-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-09-16
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-07-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-10-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-07-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-01-15
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-07-17