CENTRAL REFRIGERATION FINANCE LIMITED

💤Zombieactive
SC045782 · ltd · incorporated 1968-07-02
Investment thesis
Zombie company — trading but stalled; unlikely mover.
Why interesting: Quiet, steady; could be a succession or carve-out candidate with the right conversation.
Why risky: No growth signal; thin margin for error on price.
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
£28.1k
year to Dec 2024
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: Plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation
Sector: Construction
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 86-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 85/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 86). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Broaden director team. Sole director creates succession risk and reduces buyer comfort. Appoint a second director or strong #2. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 50.1y

45/100
under pressure

Refinance would be pressure-driven, not opportunity-driven. Expect tighter margins and covenant scrutiny.

  • · Oldest live charge is 50.1 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Distress signals active — lender appetite narrows.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (76/100)

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
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
5 officers (2 active, 5 linked, 2 with DOB)
78
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
97 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
🔒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
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£2k£3k£5k£6k£8kDec 2023Dec 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-12-312023-12-31
Turnover£28.1k—
Total assets—£676
Current assets—£7.6k
Cash—£3.3k
Debtors—£4.3k
Net assets—£676
Average employees200—

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
3
filings
  • • 2 persons-with-significant-control
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-01-21
    📄
    notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
  2. 2026-01-21
    📄
    cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
  3. 2025-03-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  4. 2024-10-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  5. 2023-06-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-09-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-09-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2020-09-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2019-09-09
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2018-10-02
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  11. 2017-09-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  12. 2016-09-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  13. 2015-12-03
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  14. 2015-10-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2015-04-10
    📄
    mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
    mortgage · MR04
  16. 2015-04-10
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  17. 2007-12-31
    ➕
    MCMENIGALL, Martin appointed
    secretary
  18. 2007-12-31
    ➖
    MCMENIGALL, Moyra Edith resigned
    secretary
  19. 2005-12-31
    ➖
    HOME, James Douglas resigned
    director
  20. 1997-08-04
    ➖
    MCMENIGALL, Martin resigned
    director
  21. 1997-08-01
    ➕
    MCMENIGALL, Moyra Edith appointed
    director
  22. 1976-03-15
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  23. 1968-07-02
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As CENTRAL REFRIGERATION FINANCE 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
  • +Sole director: Only one active director — all governance concentrated on one person.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 29 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 86 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

100/100
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 86 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 29 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 58 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 Moyra Edith Mcmenigall
Individual · British · DOB 01/1940 · age 86
75–100%
—75-100% shares21/01/2026
1 historic (ceased) PSC
  • Mrs Moyra Edith Mcmenigallceased 21/01/2026· 75-100% shares

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

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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
Incorporated1968-07-02
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC43220 — Plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation

Registered office

Kingscrest
193/3 Colinton Road
Edinburgh
EH14 1BJ

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-09-30
Last made up to: 2024-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-12-14
Last: 2025-11-30

Officers (2 active · 3 resigned)

MCMENIGALL, Martin→
secretary · appointed 2007-12-31
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MCMENIGALL, Moyra Edith→
director · ~86y · appointed 1997-08-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MCMENIGALL, Moyra Edith→
secretary · resigned 2007-12-31
Resigned
HOME, James Douglas→
director · ~83y · resigned 2005-12-31
Resigned
MCMENIGALL, Martin→
director · resigned 1997-08-04
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

1
Total charges
0
Outstanding
0
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
satisfied
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Floating charge1 property15/03/197610/04/2015

Recent filings (97 total)

notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
2026-01-21
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2026-01-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-01-07
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-03-31
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-12-08
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2024-10-16
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-12-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-06-07
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-12-06
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-09-11
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-12-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-09-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-12-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-09-23
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-12-02