W.A.C. MCCANDLESS (ENGINEERS) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

NI005177 · ltd · incorporated 1962-02-28

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.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.

· Oldest live charge 6.0y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Dec 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

83/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 46140

Sector: Wholesale & retail

Investor take

Pursue

Conservative operator with a 68-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 68). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: strategic trade sale (78/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 6.0y

85/100

ready

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

· Oldest live charge is 6.0 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

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

Lenders & charges

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

Directors & officers

12 officers (9 active, 12 linked, 10 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared

Director network

4 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

175 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

🔒Estimated company valuation

Sector-multiple EBITDA, turnover, and NAV-proxy valuation range with confidence tier — derived from extracted iXBRL financials.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

Opportunity Score

83/100Exceptional

PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional

Strong composite across quality, acquirability, and risk. High-priority target — progress to serious diligence.

Business quality

Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.

Acquirability

Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.

Risk profile

Few red flags.

Signal strength

100

Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · FRS 102

Profitable

Profit before tax £1,719,526

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 · FRS 102

Metric	2025-12-31	2024-12-31
Profit before tax	£1.72M	£1.82M
Average employees	30	26

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

filing

• 1 accounts

Last 90 days

filing

• 1 accounts

Last 180 days

filing

• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (30 events)Click to expand

2026-05-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2025-10-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2024-07-04
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2023-07-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2022-03-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2021-05-21
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2021-05-21
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2021-05-18
➕
CARVILL, Gerald Daniel appointed
director
2021-05-13
➕
GIBSON, Mandy Louise appointed
director
2021-05-06
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2020-09-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2020-06-04
📄
mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
mortgage · MR01
2020-06-04
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Northern Bank Limited
2019-10-03
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2018-09-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2018-05-03
📄
appoint-person-secretary-company-with-name-date
officers · AP03
2018-05-03
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2018-05-03
📄
termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM02
2017-12-11
➕
GERRING, Rosemary Elaine appointed
secretary
2017-12-10
➖
GIBSON, William Stephens resigned
secretary
2017-12-10
➖
GIBSON, William Stephens resigned
director
2017-09-12
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2013-04-22
➕
GERRING, Justin Alfred appointed
director
2013-01-16
➖
GIBSON, Minnie Maria resigned
director
2001-09-03
➕
CARVILL, Ciaran appointed
director
2000-05-06
➕
GERRING, Rosemary Elaine appointed
director
2000-04-06
➕
FISHER, Pamela Mary appointed
director
2000-04-06
➕
GIBSON, John Elliott appointed
director
2000-04-06
➕
STEVENSON, Dorothea Elizabeth appointed
director
1962-02-28
🏢
Company incorporated
As W.A.C. MCCANDLESS (ENGINEERS) LIMITED

Owner dependency

73/100

High — earn-out structure required

Material founder dependency. Consider a 2-3 year earn-out and build in a handover plan before completion.

FACTORS

-8 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 26 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 68 — succession pressure is live.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

80/100

Likely off-market candidate

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

SIGNALS

primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 68. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 26 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 64 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

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mrs Rosemary Elaine Gerring Individual · British · DOB 06/1965 · age 61	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	06/04/2016

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 →

Similar companies

Active · Wholesale & distribution · BT postcode area

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CTEC (NI) LIMITED→ NI055929 · est 2005	£17.92M £13.44M–£22.40M	£21.25M	—	1300	20y	87	66y
R. THOMPSON & SON (ARMAGH) LIMITED→ NI007069 · est 1967	£9.87M £7.40M–£12.34M	—	—	55	58y	87	89y
TAILORED IMAGE LTD→ NI034580 · est 1998	£5.64M £4.23M–£7.05M	£20.80M	—	11400	27y	93	63y
FORESTWOOD AGENCIES LIMITED→ NI029479 · est 1995	£4.47M £3.35M–£5.59M	—	—	1400	31y	87	62y
TAYLORS (FYFIN) LIMITED→ NI012103 · est 1977	£3.11M £2.33M–£3.89M	—	—	21	48y	87	72y
CENTURY ELECTRICAL WHOLESALE LTD→ NI053328 · est 2004	£2.68M £2.01M–£3.36M	£14.83M	—	6000	21y	85	80y
EUROCABLES (BELFAST) LIMITED→ NI031739 · est 1996	£2.29M £1.72M–£2.86M	—	—	3100	29y	86	64y
ERWIN AGRI-CARE LIMITED→ NI605964 · est 2011	£2.00M £1.50M–£2.50M	—	—	3700	15y	87	66y
IAN A KERNOHAN (NI) LIMITED→ NI019120 · est 1986	£370.7k £278.0k–£463.4k	£12.44M	—	3500	40y	93	69y
VANDEN RECYCLING LIMITED→ NI611544 · est 2012	£75.8k £56.8k–£94.7k	—	—	59	14y	89	49y
GORTRUSH TRADING LIMITED→ NI602780 · est 2010	£35.3k £26.5k–£44.2k	—	—	0	16y	95	59y
HANNAN MEATS LIMITED→ NI022775 · est 1989	—	—	—	2800	36y	87	66y

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.

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Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated1962-02-28

Jurisdictionnorthern-ireland

Primary SIC46140 — SIC 46140

Registered office

95 Limestone Road

Belfast

BT15 3AB

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-09-30

Last made up to: 2025-12-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-08-28

Last: 2025-08-14