B. COOKSON LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

01864616 · ltd · incorporated 1984-11-19

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 40.4y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to May 2025

Net worth

£2.23M

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Wholesale of fruit and vegetables

Sector: Wholesale & retail

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company. Family succession underway — not a classic acquisition target.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Same-surname younger director in place — likely family handover, not open to sale. Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 2 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

3 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 40.4y

50/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 40.4 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: high (80/100)

Strong data coverage across all sections. AI outputs should be trusted with minimal caveats.

Company profile

address, 1 SIC codes, incorporation date

100

Financials

2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed

Lenders & charges

3 charges (3/3 with lender, 3/3 with type)

Directors & officers

9 officers (5 active, 9 linked, 7 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared

Director network

3 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

119 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

82/100Exceptional

PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional

Strong composite across quality, acquirability, and risk. High-priority target — progress to serious diligence.

Business quality

Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.

Acquirability

Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.

Risk profile

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 £2,226,242

Cash YoY

+107%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£537k

↑ 107% YoY

Net Worth

£2.2m

↑ 5.6% YoY

Current Assets

£2.3m

↓ 9.0% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-05-31	2024-05-31
Total assets	£2.49M	£2.28M
Current assets	£2.26M	£2.48M
Cash	£537.0k	£259.9k
Debtors	£1.63M	£2.12M
Net assets	£2.23M	£2.11M

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

filings

Last 90 days

filings

Last 180 days

filings

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (33 events)Click to expand

2025-12-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-03-31
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2025-03-31
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2025-03-27
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-03-27
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-03-27
📄
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2025-03-25
➕
COOKSON, Jack William appointed
director
2025-03-25
➕
MORLEY, Nicola Zilla appointed
director
2025-02-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-04-02
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2024-04-02
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2024-02-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-02-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-11-09
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC05
2022-04-26
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2022-04-26
📄
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2022-03-10
📄
change-person-director-company
officers · CH01
2022-02-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-05-04
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-02-25
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2014-07-15
➖
COOKSON, Martin resigned
director
2004-09-21
➕
COOKSON, Brian appointed
secretary
2004-09-21
➖
COOKSON, Margaret Rose resigned
secretary
2004-09-21
➖
COOKSON, Brian resigned
director
2004-09-21
➖
COOKSON, Margaret Rose resigned
director
2000-03-07
➕
COOKSON, Brian appointed
director
2000-03-07
➕
COOKSON, Craig appointed
director
2000-03-07
➕
COOKSON, Martin appointed
director
1998-10-16
🔒
Charge registered #3
Lender: National Westminster Bank PLC
1998-10-02
🔓
Charge satisfied #1
1998-04-17
🔒
Charge registered #2
Lender: National Westminster Bank PLC
1986-02-20
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
1984-11-19
🏢
Company incorporated
As B. COOKSON LIMITED

Owner dependency

81/100

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

-4 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "COOKSON" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 26 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Senior director age: Director aged approximately 63 — approaching natural succession window.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

30/100

Weak signal

Limited succession signal. Not a near-term off-market candidate.

SIGNALS

primaryFamily succession underway: Not a takeover target — COOKSON, Jack William (same surname) appointed 2025-03-25. Pattern consistent with intra-family handover.
primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 63. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 26 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
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.)

Group structure

B Cookson Holdings Limited is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️

B Cookson Holdings Limited

Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares

ultimate parent

⬇

B. COOKSON LIMITED

This company · 01864616

Parent relationships inferred from Persons with Significant Control filings. Full subsidiary tree requires reverse-lookup (coming).

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
B Cookson Holdings Limited Corporate entity	75–100%	75–100%	75-100% shares · 75-100% voting	06/04/2016

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 →

Similar companies

Active · Wholesale & distribution · PR postcode area

Company	Est. value	Turnover	Net worth	Staff	Age	Opp	Director
A NEWTON PLANT LTD→ 11338421 · est 2018 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	7y	—	—
A Y A BUSINESS SOLUTIONS LTD→ 15567571 · est 2024 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	2y	—	—
AL-REHMAN FABRICS UK LTD→ 15457951 · est 2024 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	2y	—	—
ASHLEY HOUSE FURNITURE LTD→ 15355550 · est 2023 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	2y	—	—
ASHTON PLANT CENTRE LTD→ 10530811 · est 2016 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	9y	—	—
ATKINSON BROOKES LIMITED→ 15704114 · est 2024 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	1y	—	—
ATLANTIC INDUSTRIALS LIMITED→ 03531421 · est 1998 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	28y	—	—
AUTHENTICSTOCK LIMITED→ 06679979 · est 2008 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	17y	—	—
AZINA LIMITED→ 04363924 · est 2002 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	24y	—	—
AZORO LIMITED→ 16088411 · est 2024 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	1y	—	—
B 4 A ENTERPRISE LTD→ 11025791 · est 2017 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	8y	—	—
B&G FLEX LTD→ 14498957 · est 2022 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	3y	—	—

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.

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Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated1984-11-19

Jurisdictionengland-wales

Primary SIC46310 — Wholesale of fruit and vegetables

Registered office

Caxton Road

Fulwood

Preston

Lancashire

PR2 9ZB

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-02-28

Last made up to: 2025-05-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-11-17

Last: 2025-11-03