1ST CHOICE HIGH LEVEL CLEANING & MAINTENANCE LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

05000805 · ltd · incorporated 2003-12-22

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

hardening · 12-months

Already tight — no obvious softening catalysts on the horizon.

· Thesis: well-run, low negotiation leverage

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Mar 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

80/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Other building and industrial cleaning activities

Sector: Administrative & support services

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 67-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 80/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 67). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

Data confidence

Overall: medium (76/100)

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

Confirmed no charges registered

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

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

53 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

80/100Exceptional

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

Good data coverage for analysis.

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

—

Current Assets

—

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-03-31	2024-03-31
Average employees	-200	300

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 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand

2025-05-15
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-06-25
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-05-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-07-06
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-10-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-07-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-06-17
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-12-11
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2017-08-16
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2016-07-06
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-12-28
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-12-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2014-12-30
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2014-10-15
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2013-12-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2003-12-22
🏢
Company incorporated
As 1ST CHOICE HIGH LEVEL CLEANING & MAINTENANCE LIMITED
2003-12-22
➕
NICKELS, Dawn appointed
secretary
2003-12-22
➕
COUPLAND, Paul appointed
director
2003-12-22
➕
NICKELS, Dawn appointed
director
2003-12-22
➕
ROBERTSON, Reynolds appointed
secretary
2003-12-22
➖
ROBERTSON, Reynolds resigned
secretary
2003-12-22
➕
MORLEY & SCOTT CORPORATE SERVICES LIMITED appointed
corporate-director
2003-12-22
➖
MORLEY & SCOTT CORPORATE SERVICES LIMITED resigned
corporate-director

Owner dependency

83/100

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 22 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 67 — succession pressure is live.

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 67. 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 22 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 22 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
Ms Dawn Nickels Individual · English · DOB 10/1966 · age 60	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	01/06/2016
Mr Paul Coupland Individual · English · DOB 06/1959 · age 67	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	01/06/2016

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.

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Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated2003-12-22

Jurisdictionengland-wales

Primary SIC81229 — Other building and industrial cleaning activities

Registered office

56 Station Road

Drayton

Portsmouth

Hampshire

PO6 1PJ

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-12-20

Last: 2025-12-06

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

NICKELS, Dawn→

secretary · appointed 2003-12-22

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

COUPLAND, Paul→

director · ~67y · appointed 2003-12-22

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

NICKELS, Dawn→

director · ~60y · appointed 2003-12-22

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

ROBERTSON, Reynolds→

secretary · appointed 2003-12-22 · resigned 2003-12-22

Resigned

MORLEY & SCOTT CORPORATE SERVICES LIMITED→

corporate-director · appointed 2003-12-22 · resigned 2003-12-22

Resigned

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