AVENUE PHARMACY (SUNDERLAND) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
04490888 · ltd · incorporated 2002-07-22
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 23.6y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Jul 2025
Net worth
£1.69M
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Dispensing chemist in specialised stores
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 75-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 75). 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

3 live charges · oldest 23.6y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 23.6 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 (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
3 charges (3/3 with lender, 3/3 with type)
90
Directors & officers
4 officers (3 active, 4 linked, 2 with DOB)
80
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
61 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.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared
Positive net assets
Net assets £1,694,225
Net assets shrinking
Down £56,149 YoY
Cash YoY
+11%
Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£802k
↑ 11% YoY
Net Worth
£1.7m
↓ 3.2% YoY
Current Assets
£2.2m
~ YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£443k£886k£1.3m£1.8m£2.2mJul 2024Jul 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-07-312024-07-31
Total assets£1.70M£1.75M
Current assets£2.22M£2.20M
Cash£802.3k£721.4k
Debtors£1.16M£1.24M
Net assets£1.69M£1.75M

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
  • • 2 persons-with-significant-control
Last 90 days
3
filings
  • • 2 persons-with-significant-control
  • • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
3
filings
  • • 2 persons-with-significant-control
  • • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (24 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-06-09
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  2. 2026-06-09
    📄
    cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
  3. 2026-04-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2025-04-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2024-01-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2023-05-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2022-02-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2021-07-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2020-03-24
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-04-17
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2018-08-20
    📄
    accounts-amended-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AAMD
  12. 2018-04-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2017-05-02
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  14. 2016-04-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2016-03-09
    📄
    second-filing-of-form-with-form-type-made-up-date
    document-replacement · RP04
  16. 2012-06-27
    🔒
    Charge registered #3
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  17. 2012-06-21
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  18. 2008-06-06
    ➕
    BURNS, James Robert appointed
    director
  19. 2002-11-14
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  20. 2002-07-22
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As AVENUE PHARMACY (SUNDERLAND) LIMITED
  21. 2002-07-22
    ➕
    BURNS, Doreen appointed
    secretary
  22. 2002-07-22
    ➕
    BURNS, Robert appointed
    director
  23. 2002-07-22
    ➕
    SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  24. 2002-07-22
    ➖
    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 24 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 75 — 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 75 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 24 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 24 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 Robert Burns
Individual · British · DOB 03/1951 · age 75
——board controlboard control06/04/2016
1 historic (ceased) PSC
  • Mr Robert Burnsceased 01/07/2016· board control · significant influence

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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Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →
🔒Tailored diligence questions

8 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
Incorporated2002-07-22
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC47730 — Dispensing chemist in specialised stores

Registered office

5 Orchard Gardens
Sunderland
Tyne And Wear
SR6 7JW

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-04-30
Last made up to: 2025-07-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-07-28
Last: 2025-07-14

Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)

BURNS, Doreen→
secretary · appointed 2002-07-22
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BURNS, James Robert→
director · ~44y · appointed 2008-06-06
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BURNS, Robert→
director · ~75y · appointed 2002-07-22
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
SWIFT INCORPORATIONS LIMITED→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2002-07-22 · resigned 2002-07-22
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

3
Total charges
3
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:3 of 3 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Legal charge1 property27/06/2012—
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Legal charge1 property21/06/2012—
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Debenture1 property14/11/2002—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (61 total)

notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
2026-06-09
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2026-06-09
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-04-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-07-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-04-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-07-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-01-11
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-07-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-05-19
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-07-14
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-02-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-07-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-07-22
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-07-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-03-24