FIRST CHOICE SELECTION SERVICES LTD

📈Growthactive

NI026337 · ltd · incorporated 1992-02-25

Investment thesis

Growth-phase business — story-led; valuation sensitive to momentum.

Why interesting: Trading is scaling; acquirers paying for trajectory get disproportionate leverage.

Why risky: Price often leads fundamentals; dependency on founder often high.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

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

· Oldest live charge 24.4y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

£22.43M

year to Sept 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Temporary employment agency activities

Sector: Administrative & support services

Investor take

Pursue

Leverage-led grower with a 69-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 69). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 3 live charge(s) created 15+ years ago — likely paid but undischarged. Clean register. Most likely exit: strategic trade sale (78/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

4 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 24.4y

60/100

clean up first

Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.

· Oldest live charge is 24.4 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Two lenders — manageable, but coordination required.
· Legal-friction score 25/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.
· Profitable and stable/growing — lender coverage supportable.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (77/100)

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

Lenders & charges

4 charges (4/4 with lender, 4/4 with type)

Directors & officers

6 officers (3 active, 6 linked, 4 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

93 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

82/100Exceptional

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 £722,220

Turnover YoY

+13%

Year on year

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	2025-09-30	2024-09-30
Turnover	£22.43M	£19.90M
Gross profit	£2.63M	£2.23M
Operating profit	£716.8k	£380.1k
Profit before tax	£722.2k	£384.3k
Average employees	85500	84600

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

🔒Filing-note intelligence

3 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

filings

Last 90 days

filings

• 1 accounts
• 1 confirmation-statement

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 accounts
• 1 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (30 events)Click to expand

2026-03-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2025-04-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2024-05-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2023-04-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2022-05-17
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2021-04-01
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2020-06-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2019-05-10
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2018-05-31
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2017-05-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2016-06-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2016-02-19
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-12-08
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2015-12-01
➕
DOYLE, Pauline Anne appointed
director
2015-04-10
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-medium
accounts · AA
2015-02-12
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2011-03-16
➕
DOYLE, Sean appointed
secretary
2011-03-16
➖
DOYLE, Pauline Anne resigned
secretary
2011-03-16
➖
DOYLE, Pauline Anne resigned
director
2008-09-29
➖
NOBLE, Peter resigned
director
2006-12-01
🔓
Charge satisfied #3
2006-03-13
🔒
Charge registered #4
Lender: Northern Bank Limited
2004-12-21
🔒
Charge registered #3
Lender: Northern Bank Limited
2001-12-17
🔒
Charge registered #2
Lender: Northern Bank LTD
2001-12-17
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Northern Bank LTD
1992-02-25
🏢
Company incorporated
As FIRST CHOICE SELECTION SERVICES LTD
1992-02-25
➕
DOYLE, Sean Francis appointed
director
1992-02-25
➕
DOYLE, Pauline Anne appointed
secretary
1992-02-25
➕
DOYLE, Pauline Anne appointed
director
1992-02-25
➕
NOBLE, Peter appointed
director

Owner dependency

91/100

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.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 34 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 69 — succession pressure is live.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

86/100

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 69. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 34 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 34 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%

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Sean Francis Doyle Individual · Irish · DOB 11/1959 · age 67	75–100%	75–100%	75-100% shares · 75-100% voting	06/02/2017

From Companies House Persons with Significant Control filings. Share ranges are banded per the public PSC regime.

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GOLF HOLDINGS LIMITED→ NI042002 · est 2001	£18.07M £13.31M–£22.82M	—	—	3000	24y	88	80y
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VALUE VAN RENTAL UK LTD→ NI629512 · est 2015	£1.38M £1.02M–£1.75M	£2.12M	—	700	11y	91	58y
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ENTERPRISE NORTHERN IRELAND LTD→ NI038769 · est 2000	£7.6k £5.6k–£9.6k	—	—	32	25y	94	63y
TODD ARCHITECTS LTD→ NI021213 · est 1988	—	—	—	79	38y	89	59y
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W & R PROPERTIES LTD→ NI636381 · est 2016 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	10y	—	—
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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.

See pricing →

Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated1992-02-25

Jurisdictionnorthern-ireland

Primary SIC78200 — Temporary employment agency activities

Registered office

Unit 1

Cathedral Terrace

19-27 Church Street

Belfast

BT1 1PG

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-06-30

Last made up to: 2025-09-30

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-02-20

Last: 2026-02-06

Officers (3 active · 3 resigned)

DOYLE, Sean→

secretary · appointed 2011-03-16

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

DOYLE, Pauline Anne→

director · ~69y · appointed 2015-12-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

DOYLE, Sean Francis→

director · ~67y · appointed 1992-02-25

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

DOYLE, Pauline Anne→

secretary · appointed 1992-02-25 · resigned 2011-03-16

Resigned

DOYLE, Pauline Anne→

director · ~69y · appointed 1992-02-25 · resigned 2011-03-16

Resigned

NOBLE, Peter→

director · ~61y · appointed 1992-02-25 · resigned 2008-09-29

Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

Total charges

Outstanding

Active lenders

Status:Lender:4 of 4 shown

		Type	Properties
outstanding	Northern Bank Northern Bank Limited	Mortgage or charge	2 properties	13/03/2006	—
satisfied	Northern Bank Northern Bank Limited	Solicitors letter of undertaking	1 property	21/12/2004	01/12/2006
outstanding	Northern Bank Northern Bank LTD	Mortgage or charge	1 property	17/12/2001	—
outstanding	Northern Bank Northern Bank LTD	Mortgage or charge	1 property	17/12/2001	—

Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.