CORNWALL FARM MACHINERY LIMITED

💤Zombieactive
07443668 · ltd · incorporated 2010-11-18
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 Oct 2024
Net worth
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 46610
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 60-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 60). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Broaden director team. Sole director creates succession risk and reduces buyer comfort. Appoint a second director or strong #2. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 15.0y

45/100
under pressure

Refinance would be pressure-driven, not opportunity-driven. Expect tighter margins and covenant scrutiny.

  • · Oldest live charge is 15.0 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Distress signals active — lender appetite narrows.

Data confidence

Overall: high (81/100)

Strong data coverage across all sections. AI outputs should be trusted with minimal caveats.

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
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
1 officers (1 active, 1 linked, 1 with DOB)
90
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
3 connected companies via shared directors
54
Filing history
44 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
-£143k-£69k£4k£78k£152k£225kOct 2023Oct 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-10-312023-10-31
Cash£225.3k
Net assets£-143.0k
Average employees26

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
1
filing
  • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (18 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-10-01
    📄
    gazette-filings-brought-up-to-date
    gazette · DISS40
  2. 2025-09-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2025-09-30
    📄
    gazette-notice-compulsory
    gazette · GAZ1
  4. 2024-07-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2023-07-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-07-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-07-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2020-07-17
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  9. 2020-05-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-07-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2019-07-22
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-previous-extended
    accounts · AA01
  12. 2018-10-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2018-07-25
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-previous-shortened
    accounts · AA01
  14. 2017-10-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-full
    accounts · AA
  15. 2017-07-31
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-previous-shortened
    accounts · AA01
  16. 2011-07-21
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Lloyds Tsb Bank PLC
  17. 2010-11-18
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As CORNWALL FARM MACHINERY LIMITED
  18. 2010-11-18
    RICHARDS, John William George appointed
    director

Owner dependency

98/100
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 16 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 60 — approaching natural succession window.
  • +No director turnover: Company is 16 years old with no director changes — suggests a very tight-knit founder team never broadened.

Succession & seller-readiness

78/100
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.
  • secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 16 years.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 16 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 · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr John William George Richards
Individual · British · DOB 06/1966 · age 60
75100%
75–100%board control75-100% shares · 75-100% voting · board control01/06/2016

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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10533481 · est 2016 · no financials extracted
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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
Incorporated2010-11-18
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC46610 — SIC 46610

Registered office

Deer Park Trewaters
Trispen
Truro
Cornwall
TR4 9BE
United Kingdom

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-07-31
Last made up to: 2024-10-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-27
Last: 2026-01-13

Officers (1 active · 0 resigned)

RICHARDS, John William George
director · ~60y · appointed 2010-11-18
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active

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

Mortgages & charges

1
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Tsb Bank PLC
Debenture1 property21/07/2011
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (44 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-01-13
gazette-filings-brought-up-to-date
gazette · DISS40
2025-10-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-09-30
gazette-notice-compulsory
gazette · GAZ1
2025-09-30
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-02-05
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-07-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-09
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-07-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-01-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-07-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-01-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-07-14
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-01-29
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2020-07-17
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-05-28