CITY GARAGE LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

06865893 · ltd · incorporated 2009-04-01

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 15.1y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Mar 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

78/100

Strong

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 45200

Sector: Wholesale & retail

Investor take

Pursue

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

Opportunity 78/100 (strong), bankability 80/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. 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 (58/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 15.1y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 15.1 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

Lenders & charges

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

Directors & officers

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

Ownership & PSC

2 active PSC(s) of 3 total, 3 with control declared

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

43 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

78/100Strong

PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional

Solid opportunity signal. Worth a dedicated memo and management meeting.

Business quality

Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.

Acquirability

Some acquirability indicators.

Risk profile

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

—

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	500	500

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

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Last 180 days

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (21 events)Click to expand

2025-11-13
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-12-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-12-05
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-11-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-11-02
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-12-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-01-07
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2020-01-02
📄
capital-allotment-shares
capital · SH01
2019-12-31
📄
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2019-12-16
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2019-12-15
➖
ALLAN, Thomas resigned
director
2018-12-11
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2017-12-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2016-12-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2016-04-20
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-11-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2011-06-13
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Hsbc Bank PLC
2009-04-01
🏢
Company incorporated
As CITY GARAGE LIMITED
2009-04-01
➕
DUFTON, Thomas appointed
director
2009-04-01
➕
ELLIS, Justin Michael appointed
director
2009-04-01
➕
ALLAN, Thomas appointed
director

Owner dependency

68/100

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 17 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.

Succession & seller-readiness

59/100

Strong succession signal

Multiple signals suggest succession is on the horizon. Candidate for proactive outreach.

SIGNALS

secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 17 years.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 17 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 Thomas Dufton Individual · British · DOB 02/1969 · age 57	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	30/06/2016
Mr Justin Michael Ellis Individual · British · DOB 03/1970 · age 56	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	30/06/2016

1 historic (ceased) PSC

Mr Thomas Allanceased 15/12/2019· 25-50% shares · 25-50% voting

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

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.

See pricing →

Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated2009-04-01

Jurisdictionengland-wales

Primary SIC45200 — SIC 45200

Registered office

Tyne Street

Carlisle

CA1 2NP

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-04-15

Last: 2026-04-01

Officers (2 active · 1 resigned)

DUFTON, Thomas→

director · ~57y · appointed 2009-04-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

ELLIS, Justin Michael→

director · ~56y · appointed 2009-04-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

ALLAN, Thomas→

director · ~60y · appointed 2009-04-01 · resigned 2019-12-15

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	HSBC Hsbc Bank PLC	Debenture	1 property	13/06/2011	—

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