COTTAM FARMING COMPANY LIMITED

💤Zombieactive
14133074 · ltd · incorporated 2022-05-26
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
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Turnover
year to May 2025
Net worth
£-3.7k
book net assets
Opportunity
75/100
Strong
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 01500
Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Investor take
Pass (distressed without resilience)
Distressed active trading company — structural issues outweigh the discount.

Opportunity 75/100 (strong), bankability 70/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. 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).

Data confidence

Overall: high (82/100)

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
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
10 connected companies via shared directors
75
Filing history
10 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
75/100Strong
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

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

Business quality
60
Adequate — check latest filings for context.
Acquirability
70
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
85
Few red flags.
Signal strength
90
Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared
Negative net assets
Liabilities exceed assets by £3,676

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
Net Worth
-£4k
↓ 32% YoY
Current Assets
£63
↑ 1.6% YoY
Current Liabilities
-£4k-£3k-£2k-£1k-£685£63May 2024May 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-05-312024-05-31
Total assets£-3.6k£364.0k
Current assets£63£62
Net assets£-3.7k£-2.8k

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

Recent activity

Last 30 days
0
filings
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
2
filings
  • 1 confirmation-statement
  • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (8 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-03-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-02-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-02-05
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  4. 2022-09-24
    📄
    memorandum-articles
    incorporation · MA
  5. 2022-09-24
    📄
    resolution
    resolution · RESOLUTIONS
  6. 2022-05-26
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As COTTAM FARMING COMPANY LIMITED
  7. 2022-05-26
    MASSINGBERD-MUNDY, Hugh Roger Burrell appointed
    director
  8. 2022-05-26
    📄
    incorporation-company
    incorporation · NEWINC

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
  • +Sole director: Only one active director — all governance concentrated on one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 59 — approaching natural succession window.

Succession & seller-readiness

55/100
Strong succession signal

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

SIGNALS
  • secondaryFounder aged 58+: Senior director is approximately 59. Early succession window.
  • primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.

Red flags

clean
No red flags detected from available public data. (This is not a clean bill of health — detailed accounts review still recommended.)

Group structure

Bashfarms Limited is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️
Bashfarms Limited
Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares · board control
ultimate parent
COTTAM FARMING COMPANY LIMITED
This company · 14133074

Parent relationships inferred from Persons with Significant Control filings. Full subsidiary tree requires reverse-lookup (coming).

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Bashfarms Limited
Corporate entity
75100%
75–100%board control75-100% shares · 75-100% voting · board control26/05/2022

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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00618413 · est 1959 · no financials extracted
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Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →
🔒Tailored diligence questions

8 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
Incorporated2022-05-26
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC01500 — SIC 01500

Registered office

C/O Wilkin Chapman Llp The Maltings
11-15 Brayford Wharf East
Lincoln
LN5 7AY
United Kingdom

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-02-28
Last made up to: 2025-05-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-06-08
Last: 2026-05-25

Officers (1 active · 0 resigned)

MASSINGBERD-MUNDY, Hugh Roger Burrell
director · ~59y · appointed 2022-05-26
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active

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

Recent filings (10 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-06-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2026-03-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-07-02
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-02-28
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-07-31
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-02-05
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-06-14
memorandum-articles
incorporation · MA
2022-09-24
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2022-09-24
incorporation-company
incorporation · NEWINC
2022-05-26