APPLEBY FARMS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
02027689 · ltd · incorporated 1986-06-12
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
hardening · 12-months
Already tight — no obvious softening catalysts on the horizon.
  • · Thesis: well-run, low negotiation leverage
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Dec 2024
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
80/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds
Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 68-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 80/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 68). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

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
Confirmed no charges registered
85
Directors & officers
9 officers (3 active, 9 linked, 6 with DOB)
83
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
112 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
80/100Exceptional
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
90
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£0Dec 2023Dec 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-12-312023-12-31
Average employees00

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 (27 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-12-09
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  2. 2025-12-09
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  3. 2025-12-09
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  4. 2025-07-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2024-08-12
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2023-10-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2022-08-12
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2021-09-02
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2020-08-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-09-03
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2018-10-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2017-09-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2017-06-26
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  14. 2017-06-26
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  15. 2016-10-06
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  16. 2016-07-12
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  17. 1997-09-24
    ➕
    ST OSWALD, Lord, The appointed
    secretary
  18. 1997-09-24
    ➖
    HAIGH, Terence resigned
    secretary
  19. 1997-09-24
    ➕
    ST OSWALD, The Lord appointed
    secretary
  20. 1997-09-24
    ➖
    ST OSWALD, The Lord resigned
    secretary
  21. 1997-09-04
    ➖
    WINN, Charlotte Denise Gleen, The Lady St Oswald resigned
    director
  22. 1997-09-04
    ➖
    WINN, Derek Edward Anthony, The Right Honourable Lord St Oswald resigned
    director
  23. 1991-06-29
    ➕
    ST OSWALD, Charles Rowland Andrew, Lord appointed
    director
  24. 1991-06-29
    ➕
    ST OSWALD, Louise Alexandra, Lady appointed
    director
  25. 1991-06-29
    ➖
    ST OSWALD, The Lady resigned
    director
  26. 1991-06-29
    ➖
    ST OSWALD, The Lord resigned
    director
  27. 1986-06-12
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As APPLEBY FARMS 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 35 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 68 — 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 candidate

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

SIGNALS
  • primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 68. 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 35 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 40 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
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Lord Charles Rowland Andrew St. Oswald
Individual · British · DOB 07/1959 · age 67
25–50%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/04/2016
Lady Louise Alexandra St Oswald
Individual · British · DOB 01/1958 · age 68
25–50%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/04/2016

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 →

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APPLETON GRANGE EQUESTRIAN CENTRE LIMITED→
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AQUAGRONOMY LIMITED→
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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
Incorporated1986-06-12
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC01110 — Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds

Registered office

Estate Office East Newton
Hall Farm Oswaldkirk
York
North Yorkshire
YO62 5YE

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-09-30
Last made up to: 2024-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-07-12
Last: 2025-06-28

Officers (3 active · 6 resigned)

ST OSWALD, Lord, The→
secretary · appointed 1997-09-24
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ST OSWALD, Charles Rowland Andrew, Lord→
director · ~67y · appointed 1991-06-29
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ST OSWALD, Louise Alexandra, Lady→
director · ~68y · appointed 1991-06-29
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HAIGH, Terence→
secretary · resigned 1997-09-24
Resigned
ST OSWALD, The Lord→
secretary · appointed 1997-09-24 · resigned 1997-09-24
Resigned
ST OSWALD, The Lady→
director · ~68y · resigned 1991-06-29
Resigned
ST OSWALD, The Lord→
director · ~67y · resigned 1991-06-29
Resigned
WINN, Charlotte Denise Gleen, The Lady St Oswald→
director · ~97y · resigned 1997-09-04
Resigned
WINN, Derek Edward Anthony, The Right Honourable Lord St Oswald→
director · ~107y · resigned 1997-09-04
Resigned

Click a director name to see their full track record across all companies.

Recent filings (112 total)

change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2025-12-09
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-12-09
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-12-09
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-07-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-06-30
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-08-12
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-07-09
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-10-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-06-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-08-12
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-06-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-09-02
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-08-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-08-04
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-07-03