ACADEMY FORKLIFT (HOLDINGS) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
01833355 · ltd · incorporated 1984-07-17
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 24.3y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to May 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Renting and leasing of trucks and other heavy vehicles
Sector: Administrative & support services
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 78-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 78). 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 24.3y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 24.3 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
9 officers (3 active, 9 linked, 5 with DOB)
81
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
100 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£0May 2024May 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-05-312024-05-31
Average employees200200

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
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (29 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-02-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-02-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-02-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2022-11-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-03-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-05-17
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2020-02-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2018-12-13
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2018-02-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2017-02-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  11. 2016-05-19
    📄
    capital-allotment-shares
    capital · SH01
  12. 2016-05-19
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  13. 2015-12-22
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  14. 2015-09-18
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  15. 2015-03-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  16. 2002-02-11
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Hsbc Bank PLC
  17. 2000-03-03
    ➕
    OWEN, David John appointed
    secretary
  18. 1999-08-26
    ➕
    ELCOME, Margaret Mary appointed
    director
  19. 1998-08-12
    ➕
    OWEN, David John appointed
    director
  20. 1998-01-21
    ➖
    BROWN, Derrick Croote resigned
    secretary
  21. 1998-01-21
    ➖
    BROWN, Julian Richard Croote resigned
    director
  22. 1994-04-27
    ➕
    BROWN, Derrick Croote appointed
    secretary
  23. 1994-04-27
    ➖
    OWEN, David John resigned
    secretary
  24. 1993-11-24
    ➖
    JENNINGS, David William resigned
    secretary
  25. 1993-11-24
    ➕
    OWEN, David John appointed
    secretary
  26. 1993-11-24
    ➕
    BROWN, Julian Richard Croote appointed
    director
  27. 1993-11-24
    ➖
    JENNINGS, David William resigned
    director
  28. 1993-11-24
    ➖
    STAMPER, John William resigned
    director
  29. 1984-07-17
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ACADEMY FORKLIFT (HOLDINGS) LIMITED

Owner dependency

83/100
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 28 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 78 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

96/100
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 78 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 28 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 42 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 · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr David John Owen
Individual · British · DOB 03/1948 · age 78
75–100%
—75-100% shares31/05/2016

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
Incorporated1984-07-17
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC77120 — Renting and leasing of trucks and other heavy vehicles

Registered office

41 Ivatt Way
Peterborough
Cambridgeshire
PE3 7PN

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-02-28
Last made up to: 2025-05-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-09-05
Last: 2025-08-22

Officers (3 active · 6 resigned)

OWEN, David John→
secretary · appointed 2000-03-03
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ELCOME, Margaret Mary→
director · ~78y · appointed 1999-08-26
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
OWEN, David John→
director · ~78y · appointed 1998-08-12
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BROWN, Derrick Croote→
secretary · appointed 1994-04-27 · resigned 1998-01-21
Resigned
JENNINGS, David William→
secretary · resigned 1993-11-24
Resigned
OWEN, David John→
secretary · appointed 1993-11-24 · resigned 1994-04-27
Resigned
BROWN, Julian Richard Croote→
director · ~59y · appointed 1993-11-24 · resigned 1998-01-21
Resigned
JENNINGS, David William→
director · ~81y · resigned 1993-11-24
Resigned
STAMPER, John William→
director · ~81y · resigned 1993-11-24
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
HSBC
Hsbc Bank PLC
Debenture1 property11/02/2002—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (100 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-02-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-08-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-02-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-08-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-02-20
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-08-22
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-05-31
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-11-01
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-05-31
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-03-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-06-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-05-17
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-05-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-02-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-05-20