CRAWFORD & WILSON LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
NI000324 · ltd · incorporated 1926-04-16
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 39.9y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Jan 2025
Net worth
£290.2k
book net assets
Opportunity
79/100
Strong
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What this business does
Primary activity: Retail sale of hardware, paints and glass in specialised stores
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pursue
Asset-holding vehicle with a 71-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 79/100 (strong), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (60/100, director aged 71). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 39.9y

85/100
ready

Refinance conversation should be productive — structure clean and timing right.

  • · Oldest live charge is 39.9 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (79/100)

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
75
Lenders & charges
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
3 officers (3 active, 3 linked, 2 with DOB)
83
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
179 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
79/100Strong
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

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

Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
70
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
85
Few red flags.
Signal strength
100
Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared
Positive net assets
Net assets £290,238

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
—
Net Worth
£290k
↑ 32% YoY
Current Assets
£212k
↑ 373% YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£58k£116k£174k£232k£290kJan 2024Jan 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-01-312024-01-31
Total assets£290.2k£220.2k
Current assets£212.2k£44.9k
Net assets£290.2k£220.2k

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
0
filings
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (18 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-08-05
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-07-03
    📄
    mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
    mortgage · MR04
  3. 2024-07-03
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  4. 2024-05-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  5. 2023-05-15
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  6. 2023-05-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  7. 2022-07-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  8. 2021-11-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  9. 2020-11-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-10-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  11. 2018-10-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  12. 2017-10-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  13. 2016-10-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  14. 2016-01-04
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  15. 2015-07-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  16. 2015-01-20
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  17. 1986-06-26
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Ulster Bank LTD
  18. 1926-04-16
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As CRAWFORD & WILSON LIMITED

Owner dependency

81/100
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.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 71 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

76/100
Likely off-market candidate

Strong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.

SIGNALS
  • primaryFounder aged 70+: Senior director is approximately 71 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 100 years old and no new directors in the last 3 years — succession not yet being planned internally.

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 George Rule Hamilton
Individual · British · DOB 06/1955 · age 71
75–100%
—75-100% shares06/04/2016

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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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 →
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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
Incorporated1926-04-16
Jurisdictionnorthern-ireland
Primary SIC47520 — Retail sale of hardware, paints and glass in specialised stores

Registered office

2 Edenbrack Road
Omagh
Co Tyrone
BT79 7JN
Northern Ireland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-10-31
Last made up to: 2025-01-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-14
Last: 2025-12-31

Officers (3 active · 0 resigned)

HAMILTON, Fiona P→
secretary
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HAMILTON, Fiona P→
director · ~67y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HAMILTON, George Rule→
director · ~71y
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
0
Outstanding
0
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
satisfied
NatWest Group
Ulster Bank LTD
Mortgage or charge1 property26/06/198603/07/2024

Recent filings (179 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-02-02
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-08-05
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-01-15
mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
mortgage · MR04
2024-07-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-05-28
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-11
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2023-05-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-05-15
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-01-11
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-07-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-01-10
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-11-04
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-01-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-11-11
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-01-02