AUTOSPRAY (NEWBRIDGE-ON-WYE) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
04865617 · ltd · incorporated 2003-08-13
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 16.6y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
Upgrade to see
Turnover
year to Sept 2024
Net worth
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 45200
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 69-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 69). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 2 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 · oldest 16.6y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 16.6 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 (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
75
Lenders & charges
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
4 officers (3 active, 4 linked, 3 with DOB)
85
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
65 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£0Sept 2023Sept 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-09-302023-09-30
Average employees400400

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
0
filings
Last 90 days
0
filings
Last 180 days
0
filings
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-06-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-09-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-08-13
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  4. 2023-06-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-12-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-09-26
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-previous-shortened
    accounts · AA01
  7. 2021-09-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2021-06-29
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-previous-shortened
    accounts · AA01
  9. 2020-09-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-06-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2018-11-28
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-previous-extended
    accounts · AA01
  12. 2018-08-08
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  13. 2017-12-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2016-12-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2016-03-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  16. 2010-10-15
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Hsbc Bank PLC
  17. 2009-10-29
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Hsbc Bank PLC
  18. 2008-03-01
    LAYTON, Martina Jo resigned
    director
  19. 2003-08-13
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As AUTOSPRAY (NEWBRIDGE-ON-WYE) LIMITED
  20. 2003-08-13
    LAYTON, Mark Edward appointed
    secretary
  21. 2003-08-13
    LAYTON, Mark Edward appointed
    director
  22. 2003-08-13
    LAYTON, Michael David appointed
    director
  23. 2003-08-13
    LAYTON, Martina Jo appointed
    director

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 23 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 69 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

86/100
Likely off-market candidate

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

SIGNALS
  • primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 69. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 23 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 23 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 Mark Edward Layton
Individual · British · DOB 10/1957 · age 69
5075%
50–75%board control50-75% shares · 50-75% voting · board control06/04/2016
Mr Michael David Layton
Individual · British · DOB 04/1992 · age 34
2550%
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
Incorporated2003-08-13
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC45200 — SIC 45200

Registered office

Fir Tree Garage Newbridge-On-Wye
Builth Wells
Powys
LD2 3RU
United Kingdom

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-06-27
Last made up to: 2024-09-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-08-27
Last: 2025-08-13

Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)

LAYTON, Mark Edward
secretary · appointed 2003-08-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
LAYTON, Mark Edward
director · ~69y · appointed 2003-08-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
LAYTON, Michael David
director · ~34y · appointed 2003-08-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
LAYTON, Martina Jo
director · ~39y · appointed 2003-08-13 · resigned 2008-03-01
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
2
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
HSBC
Hsbc Bank PLC
Legal mortgage1 property15/10/2010
outstanding
HSBC
Hsbc Bank PLC
Debenture1 property29/10/2009
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (65 total)

confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-08-29
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-06-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-09-27
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2024-08-13
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-08-13
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-08-14
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-06-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-12-20
change-account-reference-date-company-previous-shortened
accounts · AA01
2022-09-26
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-08-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-09-29
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-08-17
change-account-reference-date-company-previous-shortened
accounts · AA01
2021-06-29
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-09-29
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-08-18