AJ EPPING LTD

🏛️Establishedactive
11343869 · ltd · incorporated 2018-05-03
Investment thesis
Established operating company — standard diligence applies, no dominant angle.
Why interesting: Live, filing, normal profile.
Why risky: No standout signals in either direction.
🔒Estimated value
Upgrade to see
Turnover
year to May 2024
Net worth
book net assets
Opportunity
54/100
Worth a look
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: Licenced restaurants
Sector: Accommodation & food service
Investor take
Pass (distressed without resilience)
Distressed admin-neglect survivor — structural issues outweigh the discount.

Opportunity 54/100 (worth a look), bankability 45/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: File overdue accounts. Clears statutory overdue flag — immediate bankability uplift for refinance conversations. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (38/100). Current lenders should be on monthly review.

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
Confirmed no charges registered
85
Directors & officers
2 officers (2 active, 2 linked, 2 with DOB)
90
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
6 connected companies via shared directors
63
Filing history
25 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
54/100Worth a look
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

Mixed signal. Worth opening the full target workup before deciding to pursue.

Business quality
40
Concerning — overdue filings or status flags present.
Acquirability
55
Some acquirability indicators.
Risk profile
49
Multiple red flags — proceed with caution.
Signal strength
90
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£0May 2023May 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-05-312023-05-31

Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.

Recent activity

Last 30 days
1
filing
  • 1 dissolution
Last 90 days
2
filings
  • 1 dissolution
  • 1 gazette
Last 180 days
2
filings
  • 1 dissolution
  • 1 gazette
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (21 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-05-15
    📄
    dissolved-compulsory-strike-off-suspended
    dissolution · DISS16(SOAS)
  2. 2026-04-28
    📄
    gazette-notice-compulsory
    gazette · GAZ1
  3. 2025-07-09
    📄
    gazette-filings-brought-up-to-date
    gazette · DISS40
  4. 2025-07-01
    📄
    gazette-notice-compulsory
    gazette · GAZ1
  5. 2025-03-08
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
    accounts · AA
  6. 2024-04-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
    accounts · AA
  7. 2023-03-13
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
    accounts · AA
  8. 2022-12-03
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  9. 2022-12-01
    📄
    gazette-filings-brought-up-to-date
    gazette · DISS40
  10. 2022-12-01
    📄
    gazette-filings-brought-up-to-date
    gazette · DISS40
  11. 2022-11-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
    accounts · AA
  12. 2022-08-04
    📄
    dissolved-compulsory-strike-off-suspended
    dissolution · DISS16(SOAS)
  13. 2022-07-26
    📄
    gazette-notice-compulsory
    gazette · GAZ1
  14. 2021-06-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  15. 2020-03-03
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  16. 2019-11-22
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  17. 2019-05-21
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  18. 2018-05-03
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As AJ EPPING LTD
  19. 2018-05-03
    MCCLENAGHAN, Aaron appointed
    director
  20. 2018-05-03
    MCCLENAGHAN, James Samuel appointed
    director
  21. 2018-05-03
    📄
    incorporation-company
    incorporation · NEWINC

Owner dependency

71/100
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.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.
  • +No director turnover: Company is 8 years old with no director changes — suggests a very tight-knit founder team never broadened.

Succession & seller-readiness

36/100
Weak signal

Limited succession signal. Not a near-term off-market candidate.

SIGNALS
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.

Red flags

2 high ·
Accounts overdue
high

Statutory accounts have not been filed by their due date. Can indicate admin breakdown, cash preservation, or deliberate delay.

Evidence: Next due: 2026-02-28

Confirmation statement overdue
high

Annual confirmation statement not filed on time. Required statutory filing — overdue is a strong discipline signal.

Evidence: Next due: 2026-04-29

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr James Mcclenaghan
Individual · British · DOB 02/1986 · age 40
sig. influencesignificant influence03/05/2018

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

9 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 →
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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
Incorporated2018-05-03
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC56101 — Licenced restaurants

Registered office

Osier House Osier Way
Sible Hedingham
Halstead
CO9 3FF
England

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-02-28OVERDUE
Last made up to: 2024-05-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-04-29OVERDUE
Last: 2025-04-15

Officers (2 active · 0 resigned)

MCCLENAGHAN, Aaron
director · ~51y · appointed 2018-05-03
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MCCLENAGHAN, James Samuel
director · ~40y · appointed 2018-05-03
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active

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

Recent filings (25 total)

dissolved-compulsory-strike-off-suspended
dissolution · DISS16(SOAS)
2026-05-15
gazette-notice-compulsory
gazette · GAZ1
2026-04-28
gazette-filings-brought-up-to-date
gazette · DISS40
2025-07-09
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-07-08
gazette-notice-compulsory
gazette · GAZ1
2025-07-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2025-03-08
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-04-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2024-04-15
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-05-16
accounts-with-accounts-type-dormant
accounts · AA
2023-03-13
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2022-12-03
gazette-filings-brought-up-to-date
gazette · DISS40
2022-12-01
gazette-filings-brought-up-to-date
gazette · DISS40
2022-12-01
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-11-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-11-30