01 ART SERVICES LTD.

🌳Matureactive
02689059 · ltd · incorporated 1992-02-19
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 29.7y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Apr 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Freight transport by road
Sector: Transportation & storage
ALSO REGISTERED FOR
  • 52103SIC 52103
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 74-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 74). 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 29.7y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 29.7 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 (77/100)

Adequate coverage. AI outputs are reliable for the sections scored high; verify the rest in diligence.

Company profile
address, 2 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
4 officers (3 active, 4 linked, 2 with DOB)
80
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
87 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£0Apr 2024Apr 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-04-302024-04-30
Average employees600600

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
2
filings
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
  • • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-01-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-06-07
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  3. 2024-11-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2024-03-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2023-02-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-04-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-04-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2020-01-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2019-01-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2018-01-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2017-05-04
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  12. 2017-05-04
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  13. 2017-03-22
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  14. 2017-01-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2016-03-01
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  16. 2015-02-20
    ➕
    COOPER, David Michael appointed
    director
  17. 2014-08-11
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Hsbc Bank PLC
  18. 1996-09-06
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Midland Bank PLC
  19. 1992-02-19
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As 01 ART SERVICES LTD.
  20. 1992-02-19
    ➕
    COOPER, David Michael appointed
    secretary
  21. 1992-02-19
    ➕
    COOPER, Elizabeth Rose appointed
    director
  22. 1992-02-19
    ➖
    SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED resigned
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  23. 1992-02-14
    ➕
    SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary

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 34 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 74 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

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 74 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 34 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 34 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
Mr David Michael Cooper
Individual · British · DOB 06/1952 · age 74
25–50%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/04/2016
Mrs Elizabeth Rose Cooper
Individual · British · DOB 04/1956 · age 70
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.

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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 →
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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
Incorporated1992-02-19
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC49410 — Freight transport by road

Registered office

32 Bower Hill Industrial Estate
Epping
CM16 7BN
England

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-01-31
Last made up to: 2025-04-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-03-05
Last: 2026-02-19

Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)

COOPER, David Michael→
secretary · appointed 1992-02-19
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
COOPER, David Michael→
director · ~74y · appointed 2015-02-20
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
COOPER, Elizabeth Rose→
director · ~70y · appointed 1992-02-19
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 1992-02-14 · resigned 1992-02-19
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
2
Outstanding
2
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
HSBC
Hsbc Bank PLC
A registered charge1 property11/08/2014—
outstanding
Midland Bank
Midland Bank PLC
Fixed and floating charge1 property06/09/1996—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (87 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-03-10
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-01-29
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2025-06-07
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-02-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-11-30
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-03-16
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-02-19
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-02-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-02-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-04-28
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-02-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-04-01
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-03-31
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-02-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-01-31