ABILITY KITCHENS LTD.

🌳Matureactive

03812124 · ltd · incorporated 1999-07-22

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 11.2y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to May 2025

Net worth

£741.2k

book net assets

Opportunity

83/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Retail sale of furniture, lighting, and similar (not musical instruments or scores) in specialised stores

Sector: Wholesale & retail

Investor take

Pursue

Strong opportunity: active trading company with exceptional profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 58). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 11.2y

85/100

ready

Refinance conversation should be productive — structure clean and timing right.

· Oldest live charge is 11.2 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (78/100)

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

Lenders & charges

1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)

Directors & officers

5 officers (3 active, 5 linked, 2 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared

Director network

1 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

65 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

83/100Exceptional

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 £741,161

Net assets shrinking

Down £45,316 YoY

Cash YoY

-7%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£480k

↓ 6.7% YoY

Net Worth

£741k

↓ 5.8% YoY

Current Assets

£658k

↓ 7.7% 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	£824.7k	£864.1k
Current assets	£658.0k	£713.2k
Cash	£480.1k	£514.6k
Debtors	£40.0k	£71.1k
Net assets	£741.2k	£786.5k

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

filing

• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (24 events)Click to expand

2025-12-11
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-11-08
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-08
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-11-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-01-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-01-04
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-02-06
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-04-26
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2019-04-26
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2019-04-25
📄
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2018-12-05
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-02-16
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-02-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2016-02-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-07-22
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-03-27
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
2008-05-07
➕
WILLIAMS, Martin James appointed
secretary
2008-05-07
➖
JONES, Graham Alan resigned
secretary
2000-03-16
➕
CARTWRIGHT, Steven Richard appointed
director
1999-07-22
🏢
Company incorporated
As ABILITY KITCHENS LTD.
1999-07-22
➕
NORBURY, Charles Edwin appointed
director
1999-07-22
➕
JONES, Graham Alan appointed
secretary
1999-07-22
➕
SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-secretary
1999-07-22
➖
SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-secretary

Owner dependency

76/100

High — earn-out structure required

Material founder dependency. Consider a 2-3 year earn-out and build in a handover plan before completion.

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 27 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Senior director age: Director aged approximately 58 — approaching natural succession window.

Succession & seller-readiness

76/100

Likely off-market candidate

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

SIGNALS

secondaryFounder aged 58+: Senior director is approximately 58. Early succession window.
secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 27 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 27 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

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Steven Richard Cartwright Individual · British · DOB 08/1971 · age 55	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	06/04/2016
Mr Charles Edwin Norbury Individual · British · DOB 07/1968 · age 58	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	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.

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Similar companies

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06:10 LTD→ 17049814 · est 2026 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
16462330 LTD→ 16462330 · est 2025 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
22 SHOW MERCH LTD→ 15623970 · est 2024 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	2y	—	—
3D MARKET WIRRAL LTD→ 16145986 · est 2024 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	1y	—	—
42104 LTD→ 14071911 · est 2022 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	3y	—	—
45 WATERGATE LIMITED→ 15190350 · est 2023 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	2y	—	—
A CLASS FLOORING WIRRAL LTD→ 14672415 · est 2023 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	3y	—	—
A. D. MELLING LIMITED→ 05286993 · est 2004 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	21y	—	—
A2B COMMERCE LTD→ 15188366 · est 2023 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	2y	—	—
ABCMODELS LTD→ 16372317 · est 2025 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	1y	—	—
ABI & KISHOR LTD→ 12010729 · est 2019 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	6y	—	—
ABIZA (UK) LTD→ 07755032 · est 2011 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	14y	—	—

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

Incorporated1999-07-22

Jurisdictionengland-wales

Primary SIC47599 — Retail sale of furniture, lighting, and similar (not musical instruments or scores) in specialised stores

Registered office

Units 4 And 5 Brymau 4 Industrial Estate River Lane

Saltney

Chester

CH4 8RF

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-02-28

Last made up to: 2025-05-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-08-05

Last: 2025-07-22

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

WILLIAMS, Martin James→

secretary · appointed 2008-05-07

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

CARTWRIGHT, Steven Richard→

director · ~55y · appointed 2000-03-16

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

NORBURY, Charles Edwin→

director · ~58y · appointed 1999-07-22

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

JONES, Graham Alan→

secretary · appointed 1999-07-22 · resigned 2008-05-07

Resigned

SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED→

corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 1999-07-22 · resigned 1999-07-22

Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

Total charges

Outstanding

Active lenders

Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown

			Type	Properties
	outstanding	Barclays Barclays Bank PLC	A registered charge	—	27/03/2015	—

Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.