ARK SIGNS LIMITED

💤Zombieactive
04233833 · ltd · incorporated 2001-06-13
Investment thesis
Zombie company — trading but stalled; unlikely mover.
Why interesting: Quiet, steady; could be a succession or carve-out candidate with the right conversation.
Why risky: No growth signal; thin margin for error on price.
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
£189.4k
book net assets
Opportunity
80/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 22290
Sector: Manufacturing
Investor take
Pursue
Asset-holding vehicle with a 60-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 80/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 60). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Cash flow review and working-capital discipline. Cash down -36% YoY — forensic review of receivables, stock turns, and creditor days. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).

Data confidence

Overall: medium (75/100)

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
5 officers (2 active, 5 linked, 1 with DOB)
74
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
71 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.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared
Positive net assets
Net assets £189,447
Net assets shrinking
Down £21,379 YoY
Cash YoY
-36%
Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£56k
↓ 36% YoY
Net Worth
£189k
↓ 10% YoY
Current Assets
£59k
↓ 33% YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£42k£84k£126k£169k£211kMar 2024Mar 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-03-312024-03-31
Total assets£197.6k£219.0k
Current assets£58.7k£88.3k
Cash£56.3k£87.8k
Debtors£2.5k£468
Net assets£189.4k£210.8k

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
2
filings
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
  • • 1 persons-with-significant-control
Last 90 days
2
filings
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
  • • 1 persons-with-significant-control
Last 180 days
2
filings
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
  • • 1 persons-with-significant-control
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (24 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-06-25
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  2. 2025-04-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-04-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2024-04-23
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  5. 2023-06-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-09-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-06-08
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2020-07-17
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  9. 2020-07-17
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  10. 2020-07-17
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  11. 2020-05-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2019-04-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2018-04-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2017-08-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  15. 2017-07-18
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  16. 2008-10-16
    ➕
    ROBERTSON, Jacqueline Maria appointed
    secretary
  17. 2006-10-25
    ➖
    CREED, Alan Frederick resigned
    secretary
  18. 2001-06-15
    ➕
    ROBERTSON, Stuart Andrew appointed
    director
  19. 2001-06-15
    ➕
    CREED, Alan Frederick appointed
    secretary
  20. 2001-06-15
    ➖
    FORM 10 SECRETARIES FD LTD resigned
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  21. 2001-06-15
    ➖
    FORM 10 DIRECTORS FD LTD resigned
    corporate-nominee-director
  22. 2001-06-13
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ARK SIGNS LIMITED
  23. 2001-06-13
    ➕
    FORM 10 SECRETARIES FD LTD appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  24. 2001-06-13
    ➕
    FORM 10 DIRECTORS FD LTD appointed
    corporate-nominee-director

Owner dependency

93/100
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
  • +Sole director: Only one active director — all governance concentrated on one person.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 25 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 60 — approaching natural succession window.

Succession & seller-readiness

85/100
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 60. Early succession window.
  • primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 25 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 25 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

1 active beneficial owner
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Stuart Andrew Robertson
Individual · British · DOB 04/1966 · age 60
25–50%
—25-50% shares01/07/2016

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
Incorporated2001-06-13
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC22290 — SIC 22290

Registered office

3 Berrymoor Court
Northumberland Business Park
Cramlington
NE23 7RZ
England

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-06-27
Last: 2026-06-13

Officers (2 active · 3 resigned)

ROBERTSON, Jacqueline Maria→
secretary · appointed 2008-10-16
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ROBERTSON, Stuart Andrew→
director · ~60y · appointed 2001-06-15
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
CREED, Alan Frederick→
secretary · appointed 2001-06-15 · resigned 2006-10-25
Resigned
FORM 10 SECRETARIES FD LTD→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2001-06-13 · resigned 2001-06-15
Resigned
FORM 10 DIRECTORS FD LTD→
corporate-nominee-director · appointed 2001-06-13 · resigned 2001-06-15
Resigned

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

Recent filings (71 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-06-25
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2026-06-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-06-17
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-04-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-06-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-04-29
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2024-04-23
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-06-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-06-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-09-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-06-16
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-06-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-06-08
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2020-07-17
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2020-07-17