T.B. WATSON LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC013260 · ltd · incorporated 1924-07-18
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 64.3y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Feb 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 47250
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pursue
Strong opportunity: active trading company with exceptional profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. 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 · oldest 64.3y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 64.3 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 25/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.

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
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
7 officers (4 active, 7 linked, 5 with DOB)
84
Ownership & PSC
3 active PSC(s) of 3 total, 3 with control declared
90
Director network
1 connected companies via shared directors
48
Filing history
107 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.

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
—
Net Worth
—
Current Assets
—
Current Liabilities
—
£0£0£0£0£0£0Feb 2024Feb 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-02-282024-02-28
Average employees13001800

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
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (25 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-06-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-10-24
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-09-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2022-05-24
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2021-10-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-09-06
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  7. 2020-12-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2020-04-28
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  9. 2020-04-28
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  10. 2020-04-28
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  11. 2020-04-28
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  12. 2020-04-28
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  13. 2020-04-28
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  14. 2020-04-28
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  15. 2019-08-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  16. 2018-06-06
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  17. 1999-02-04
    ➕
    GIBSON, Karen appointed
    secretary
  18. 1999-02-04
    ➕
    GIBSON, Karen appointed
    director
  19. 1999-02-04
    ➖
    MARR, Thomas Hunter resigned
    secretary
  20. 1999-02-04
    ➖
    MARR, Eileen resigned
    director
  21. 1999-02-04
    ➖
    MARR, Thomas Hunter resigned
    director
  22. 1992-10-05
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  23. 1992-05-05
    ➕
    GIBSON, Brian appointed
    director
  24. 1962-01-11
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  25. 1924-07-18
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As T.B. WATSON LIMITED

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
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 34 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 66 — 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 66. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 34 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 102 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

3 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mrs Karen Gibson
Individual · British · DOB 08/1963 · age 63
25–50%
25–50%board control25-50% shares · 25-50% voting · board control01/07/2016
Mr Iain Marr
Individual · British · DOB 01/1960 · age 66
25–50%
25–50%board control25-50% shares · 25-50% voting · board control01/07/2016
Mr Brian Gibson
Individual · British · DOB 02/1960 · age 66
——sig. influencesignificant influence01/07/2016

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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——24953y8876y
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£87.3k
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——1223y8262y
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——£3.65M—42y8275y
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——£999.8k—26y8258y
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——£2.17M—21y8268y
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———170022y8273y
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——£263.4k—24y8276y
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——£3.34M—107y8261y
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——£1.71M—62y8194y
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——£47.9k—22y8080y
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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 →
🔒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
Incorporated1924-07-18
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC47250 — SIC 47250

Registered office

23 George Street
Dumfries
DG1 1EA
United Kingdom

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-11-30
Last made up to: 2025-02-28
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-04-25
Last: 2026-04-11

Officers (4 active · 3 resigned)

GIBSON, Karen→
secretary · appointed 1999-02-04
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
GIBSON, Brian→
director · ~66y · appointed 1992-05-05
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
GIBSON, Karen→
director · ~63y · appointed 1999-02-04
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MARR, Iain→
director · ~66y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MARR, Thomas Hunter→
secretary · resigned 1999-02-04
Resigned
MARR, Eileen→
director · ~87y · resigned 1999-02-04
Resigned
MARR, Thomas Hunter→
director · ~89y · resigned 1999-02-04
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
2
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Standard security1 property05/10/1992—
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Disposition and relative explanatory letter1 property11/01/1962—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (107 total)

confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-04-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-06-11
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-04-24
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-10-24
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-04-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-09-14
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-04-17
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-05-24
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-04-11
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-10-19
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2021-09-06
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-04-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-12-01
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2020-04-28
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2020-04-28