R. BARBOUR & SONS. LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC010111 · ltd · incorporated 1918-09-10
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 60.4y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Feb 2025
Net worth
£3.34M
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Retail sale of carpets, rugs, wall and floor coverings in specialised stores
Sector: Wholesale & retail
ALSO REGISTERED FOR
  • 47599Retail sale of furniture, lighting, and similar (not musical instruments or scores) in specialised stores
  • 47710Retail sale of clothing in specialised stores
  • 47721Retail sale of footwear in specialised stores
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company. Family succession underway — not a classic acquisition target.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 70/100. Same-surname younger director in place — likely family handover, not open to sale. Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 2 live charge(s) created 15+ years ago — likely paid but undischarged. Clean register. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

2 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 60.4y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 60.4 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.

Data confidence

Overall: high (80/100)

Strong data coverage across all sections. AI outputs should be trusted with minimal caveats.

Company profile
address, 4 SIC codes, incorporation date
100
Financials
2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed
75
Lenders & charges
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
9 officers (3 active, 9 linked, 8 with DOB)
88
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 3 total, 3 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
112 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
82/100Exceptional
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

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

Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
80
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 £3,338,707
Cash YoY
+8%
Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£1.7m
↑ 7.9% YoY
Net Worth
£3.3m
~ YoY
Current Assets
£3.6m
↑ 2.6% YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£722k£1.4m£2.2m£2.9m£3.6mJan 2024Feb 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-02-012024-01-27
Total assets£3.41M£3.39M
Current assets£3.61M£3.52M
Cash£1.69M£1.56M
Debtors£137.1k£162.6k
Net assets£3.34M£3.32M

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

🔒Filing-note intelligence

1 signal 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
0
filings
Last 90 days
0
filings
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (29 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-07-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-07-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-06-12
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  4. 2024-06-12
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  5. 2023-09-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-08-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2022-04-13
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  8. 2022-04-12
    📄
    cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
  9. 2022-04-12
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  10. 2022-04-06
    ➕
    BARBOUR, Ross Donald appointed
    director
  11. 2021-11-21
    ➖
    BARBOUR, Peter Douglas resigned
    director
  12. 2021-10-12
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-small
    accounts · AA
  13. 2020-11-03
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-small
    accounts · AA
  14. 2019-07-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2019-06-19
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  16. 2019-02-03
    ➖
    COCHRAN, Kathleen Moyle resigned
    director
  17. 2018-07-13
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-small
    accounts · AA
  18. 2017-09-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-small
    accounts · AA
  19. 2017-08-28
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  20. 2015-05-16
    ➖
    BARBOUR, Douglas Leslie resigned
    director
  21. 2008-03-31
    ➖
    PITCAIRN, Margaret Allison resigned
    director
  22. 2004-07-06
    ➖
    BARBOUR, Margaret Catherine resigned
    director
  23. 2003-01-14
    ➕
    PITCAIRN, Margaret Allison appointed
    director
  24. 2001-01-26
    ➖
    DAVIDSON, James resigned
    director
  25. 1991-11-08
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  26. 1991-06-17
    ➕
    DAVIDSON, James appointed
    director
  27. 1990-06-26
    ➕
    BARBOUR, Thomas Colin appointed
    director
  28. 1965-11-26
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Friends' Provident & Century Life Office
  29. 1918-09-10
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As R. BARBOUR & SONS. LIMITED

Owner dependency

99/100
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 name in company name: Company name contains director surname "BARBOUR" — strong identity link between founder and business.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 36 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 61 — approaching natural succession window.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

36/100
Weak signal

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

SIGNALS
  • primaryFamily succession underway: Not a takeover target — BARBOUR, Ross Donald (same surname) appointed 2022-04-06. Pattern consistent with intra-family handover.
  • secondaryFounder aged 58+: Senior director is approximately 61. Early succession window.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 36 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 108 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

2 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Ross Donald Barbour
Individual · British · DOB 06/1997 · age 29
——sig. influencesignificant influence28/01/2024
Mr Thomas Colin Barbour
Individual · British · DOB 02/1965 · age 61
——sig. influencesignificant influence06/04/2016
1 historic (ceased) PSC
  • Mr Peter Douglas Barbourceased 21/11/2021· significant influence

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

6 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
Incorporated1918-09-10
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC47530 — Retail sale of carpets, rugs, wall and floor coverings in specialised stores

Registered office

Buccleuch Buildings
Buccleuch Street
Dumfries
DG1 2AL

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-10-31
Last made up to: 2025-02-01
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-12-01
Last: 2025-11-17

Officers (3 active · 6 resigned)

BARBOUR, Thomas Colin→
secretary
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BARBOUR, Ross Donald→
director · ~29y · appointed 2022-04-06
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BARBOUR, Thomas Colin→
director · ~61y · appointed 1990-06-26
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BARBOUR, Douglas Leslie→
director · ~100y · resigned 2015-05-16
Resigned
BARBOUR, Margaret Catherine→
director · ~95y · resigned 2004-07-06
Resigned
BARBOUR, Peter Douglas→
director · ~66y · resigned 2021-11-21
Resigned
COCHRAN, Kathleen Moyle→
director · ~102y · resigned 2019-02-03
Resigned
DAVIDSON, James→
director · ~69y · appointed 1991-06-17 · resigned 2001-01-26
Resigned
PITCAIRN, Margaret Allison→
director · ~74y · appointed 2003-01-14 · resigned 2008-03-31
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
2
Outstanding
2
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Standard security2 properties08/11/1991—
outstanding
Friends' Provident & Century Life Office
Bond incorporating bond of corroboration and disposition in security1 property26/11/1965—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (112 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-11-17
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-07-01
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-11-18
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-07-29
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-06-17
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2024-06-12
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
2024-06-12
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-09-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-06-23
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-08-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-06-13
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2022-04-13
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2022-04-12
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2022-04-12
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2021-10-12