MEARNS SAWMILLS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC022017 · ltd · incorporated 1942-03-23
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 32.8y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Sawmilling and planing of wood
Sector: Manufacturing
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 84-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 67/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 84). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Consolidate lender relationships. 5 distinct lenders creates friction — refinance into single-lender structure for cleaner diligence. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

2 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 32.8y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 32.8 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Two lenders — manageable, but coordination required.
  • · Legal-friction score 35/100 — 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
6 officers (3 active, 6 linked, 3 with DOB)
80
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
4 connected companies via shared directors
57
Filing history
104 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£0Mar 2024Mar 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-03-312024-03-31
Average employees200200

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 (24 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-09-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-09-18
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-08-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-01-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  5. 2021-12-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-01-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  7. 2020-10-19
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  8. 2020-10-19
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  9. 2019-12-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  10. 2018-12-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  11. 2017-12-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  12. 2016-12-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  13. 2016-04-01
    📄
    mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
    mortgage · MR01
  14. 2016-03-24
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Janet Cicley Arthur
  15. 2016-02-09
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  16. 2016-01-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  17. 2011-03-01
    ➕
    GORDON, Valerie Milne appointed
    secretary
  18. 2011-03-01
    ➕
    GORDON, Caroline Jane appointed
    director
  19. 2010-09-10
    ➖
    GORDON, William Murray resigned
    secretary
  20. 2010-09-10
    ➖
    GORDON, William Murray resigned
    director
  21. 1993-07-29
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
  22. 1991-09-25
    ➕
    GORDON, William Murray appointed
    secretary
  23. 1991-09-24
    ➖
    ROSS, Robert Murray resigned
    secretary
  24. 1942-03-23
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As MEARNS SAWMILLS LIMITED

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 15 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 84 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

89/100
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 84 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 15 years.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 84 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%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mrs Valerie Milne Gordon
Individual · British · DOB 04/1942 · age 84
75–100%
75–100%board control75-100% shares · 75-100% voting · board control06/04/2016

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 →
🔒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
Incorporated1942-03-23
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC16100 — Sawmilling and planing of wood

Registered office

Craig House
Stanley
Perthshire
PH1 4NG

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-02-10
Last: 2026-01-27

Officers (3 active · 3 resigned)

GORDON, Valerie Milne→
secretary · appointed 2011-03-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
GORDON, Caroline Jane→
director · ~60y · appointed 2011-03-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
GORDON, Valerie Milne→
director · ~84y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
GORDON, William Murray→
secretary · appointed 1991-09-25 · resigned 2010-09-10
Resigned
ROSS, Robert Murray→
secretary · resigned 1991-09-24
Resigned
GORDON, William Murray→
director · ~89y · resigned 2010-09-10
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
Janet Cicley Arthur / Gordon Drake Arthur / Victoria Anne Arthur / Charles Vincent Arthur
A registered charge1 property24/03/2016—
outstanding
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
Floating charge1 property29/07/1993—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (104 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-01-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-09-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-01-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-09-18
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-29
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-08-30
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-01-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-01-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-03-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-12-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-01-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-01-25
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2020-10-19
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2020-10-19
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-02-06