ASHTON HALL GARDEN CENTRE LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
02825083 · ltd · incorporated 1993-06-08
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 21.8y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Oct 2024
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Other retail sale in non-specialised stores
Sector: Wholesale & retail
ALSO REGISTERED FOR
  • 47760SIC 47760
  • 56102Unlicenced restaurants and cafes
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 72-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 72). 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 21.8y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 21.8 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 (77/100)

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

Company profile
address, 3 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
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
89 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£0Oct 2023Oct 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-10-302023-10-30
Average employees28002900

Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.

🔒Filing-note intelligence

3 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
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (24 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-07-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-07-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-07-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2022-05-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2021-07-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-07-12
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  7. 2021-07-12
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  8. 2021-07-12
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  9. 2020-10-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-10-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2019-07-29
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-previous-shortened
    accounts · AA01
  12. 2019-07-04
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  13. 2019-07-04
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  14. 2019-07-04
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  15. 2019-07-04
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  16. 2019-07-04
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  17. 2018-07-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  18. 2004-10-04
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: National Westminster Bank PLC
  19. 2002-11-13
    ➕
    ABBIT, Helen Ruth appointed
    director
  20. 1993-06-08
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ASHTON HALL GARDEN CENTRE LIMITED
  21. 1993-06-08
    ➕
    ABBIT, Helen Ruth appointed
    secretary
  22. 1993-06-08
    ➕
    ABBIT, Anthony James appointed
    director
  23. 1993-06-08
    ➕
    SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  24. 1993-06-08
    ➖
    SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED resigned
    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 33 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 72 — 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 72 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 33 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 33 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 Anthony James Abbit
Individual · British · DOB 06/1954 · age 72
25–50%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/04/2016
Mrs Helen Ruth Abbit
Individual · British · DOB 10/1963 · age 63
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 →
🔒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
Incorporated1993-06-08
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC47190 — Other retail sale in non-specialised stores

Registered office

Ashton Hall Garden Centre
Ashton With Stodday
Thurnham Lancaster
Lancashire
LA2 0AJ

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-07-30
Last made up to: 2024-10-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-06-11
Last: 2026-05-28

Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)

ABBIT, Helen Ruth→
secretary · appointed 1993-06-08
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ABBIT, Anthony James→
director · ~72y · appointed 1993-06-08
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ABBIT, Helen Ruth→
director · ~63y · appointed 2002-11-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 1993-06-08 · resigned 1993-06-08
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
Legal charge1 property04/10/2004—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (89 total)

confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-06-09
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-07-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-05-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-07-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-06-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-07-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-06-22
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-06-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-05-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-07-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-07-12
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2021-07-12
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2021-07-12
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2021-07-12
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-10-15