A. C. BROWN (FARMS) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC030970 · ltd · incorporated 1955-08-02
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 40.9y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Jun 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds
Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 81-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 81). 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: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

4 live charges · oldest 40.9y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 40.9 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 (78/100)

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
4 charges (4/4 with lender, 4/4 with type)
90
Directors & officers
4 officers (3 active, 4 linked, 3 with DOB)
85
Ownership & PSC
3 active PSC(s) of 4 total, 4 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
111 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£0Jun 2024Jun 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-06-302024-06-30
Average employees00

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
2
filings
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
  • • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
2
filings
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
  • • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (24 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-03-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-03-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-03-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-04-03
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  5. 2023-03-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-03-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-05-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2020-03-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2019-03-28
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  10. 2019-03-28
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  11. 2019-03-28
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC02
  12. 2019-03-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2019-02-14
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  14. 2018-03-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  15. 2017-05-10
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  16. 2017-03-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  17. 2016-12-09
    ➖
    BROWN, Alexander Craighead resigned
    director
  18. 2001-10-01
    ➕
    BROWN, Graham Alexander appointed
    director
  19. 1998-08-18
    🔒
    Charge registered #5
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
  20. 1993-03-23
    🔒
    Charge registered #3
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
  21. 1993-03-23
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
  22. 1987-11-30
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  23. 1985-05-20
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
  24. 1955-08-02
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As A. C. BROWN (FARMS) LIMITED

Owner dependency

100/100
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 "BROWN" — strong identity link between founder and business.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 25 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 81 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

96/100
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 81 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 25 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 71 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.)

Group structure

Burness Paull (Trustees) Limited holds majority control (50-75%). Likely parent but not wholly-owned.

🏛️
Burness Paull (Trustees) Limited
Corporate parent · holds 50-75% shares · board control
majority
⬇
A. C. BROWN (FARMS) LIMITED
This company · SC030970

Parent relationships inferred from Persons with Significant Control filings. Full subsidiary tree requires reverse-lookup (coming).

Shareholders & ownership

3 active beneficial owners · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Graham Alexander Brown
Individual · British · DOB 09/1968 · age 58
75–100%
75–100%board control75-100% shares · 75-100% voting · board control06/04/2016
Burness Paull (Trustees) Limited
Corporate entity
50–75%
50–75%board control50-75% shares · 50-75% voting · board control21/09/2018
Mrs Christine Anne Brown
Individual · British · DOB 07/1945 · age 81
50–75%
50–75%board control50-75% shares · 50-75% voting · board control09/12/2016
1 historic (ceased) PSC
  • Mr Alexander Craighead Brownceased 09/12/2016· 50-75% shares · 50-75% voting

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

Similar companies

Active · Agriculture · DD postcode area
CompanyEst. valueTurnoverNet worthStaffAgeOppDirector
PEACEHILL FARMING LIMITED→
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£3.65M
£2.81M–£4.50M
£13.06M—570032y8476y
ANGUS GROWERS LIMITED→
SC234071 · est 2002
———150023y8380y
COOKSTON FARMS→
SC036246 · est 1961 · no financials extracted
————65y8373y
CRAIGOWL FARMS LTD.→
SC327648 · est 2007
———250018y8362y
CRUIVIE AND BRIGHOUSE LIMITED→
SC055296 · est 1974
———40052y8389y
ETHIEBARNS FARMING COMPANY→
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———110053y8371y
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———20076y8371y
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——£1.16M—26y8365y
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———20024y8273y
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————20y——
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
Incorporated1955-08-02
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC01110 — Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds

Registered office

Reidhall Farm
Brechin
Angus
DD9 7QN
United Kingdom

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-03-31
Last made up to: 2025-06-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-14
Last: 2025-12-31

Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)

BROWN, Christine Anne→
secretary
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BROWN, Christine Anne→
director · ~81y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BROWN, Graham Alexander→
director · ~58y · appointed 2001-10-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BROWN, Alexander Craighead→
director · ~94y · resigned 2016-12-09
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

4
Total charges
3
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:4 of 4 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
Standard security1 property18/08/1998—
outstanding
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
Floating charge1 property23/03/1993—
outstanding
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
Floating charge1 property23/03/1993—
satisfied
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
Standard security1 property20/05/198530/11/1987
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (111 total)

confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-04-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-03-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-03-31
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-01-14
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-03-27
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-12
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2023-04-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-03-30
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-01-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-03-31
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-01-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-05-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-01-14
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-03-25
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-01-14