WILLIAM CADENHEAD LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC052072 · ltd · incorporated 1972-12-22

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 16.0y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Jul 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

83/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 46342

Sector: Wholesale & retail

ALSO REGISTERED FOR

47250SIC 47250
47910Retail sale via mail order houses or via Internet

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 90-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 90). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 1 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

1 live charge · oldest 16.0y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 16.0 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Legal-friction score 30/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (74/100)

Adequate coverage. AI outputs are reliable for the sections scored high; verify the rest in diligence.

Company profile

address, 3 SIC codes, incorporation date

100

Financials

1 year of iXBRL accounts extracted (no YoY comparison) + narrative notes parsed

Lenders & charges

1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)

Directors & officers

15 officers (8 active, 15 linked, 13 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared

Director network

6 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

130 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

83/100Exceptional

PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional

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

Business quality

Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.

Acquirability

Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.

Risk profile

Few red flags.

Signal strength

100

Good data coverage for analysis.

Key financials

1 year extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

—

Current Assets

—

Current Liabilities

—

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102

Metric	2025-07-31
Average employees	11

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

🔒Filing-note intelligence

5 signals 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

filings

Last 90 days

filing

• 1 accounts

Last 180 days

filings

• 3 officers
• 1 accounts
• 1 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (39 events)Click to expand

2026-04-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2025-12-02
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-12-02
📄
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2025-12-02
📄
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2025-04-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2024-03-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2023-08-23
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-08-22
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-08-22
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-08-22
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-08-22
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-08-22
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2023-08-21
➕
FAWCETT, Hannah appointed
director
2023-08-21
➕
KELLY, Stephen appointed
director
2023-08-21
➕
MCAULAY, Linda appointed
director
2023-08-21
➕
ROSS, Findlay Thomas appointed
director
2023-08-21
➕
WATSON, Ranald James appointed
director
2023-08-21
➖
MURRAY, Alan Campbell resigned
director
2023-08-17
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2023-08-05
➖
WRIGHT, Hedley Gordon resigned
director
2023-03-03
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2022-08-01
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2022-06-29
➖
CAMPBELL, Lilian Cunningham resigned
director
2022-03-08
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2021-03-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2020-03-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-small
accounts · AA
2010-06-12
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Clydesdale Bank PLC
2002-08-01
➕
CAMPBELL, Stuart Alexander appointed
secretary
2002-07-31
➖
LEDINGHAM CHALMERS LLP resigned
corporate-secretary
1999-09-17
➕
CLAPPERTON, Neil appointed
director
1999-01-21
➕
REDPATH, George Christopher appointed
director
1999-01-01
➖
CLAPPERTON, Neil resigned
director
1997-11-19
➕
MURRAY, Alan Campbell appointed
director
1995-07-17
➖
WRIGHT, Gordon Henry resigned
director
1995-01-26
➕
CAMPBELL, Lilian Cunningham appointed
director
1994-08-06
➖
ALLAN, David Roy resigned
director
1993-09-01
➕
CLAPPERTON, Neil appointed
director
1989-08-18
➕
LEDINGHAM CHALMERS LLP appointed
corporate-secretary
1972-12-22
🏢
Company incorporated
As WILLIAM CADENHEAD LIMITED

Owner dependency

65/100

High — earn-out structure required

Material founder dependency. Consider a 2-3 year earn-out and build in a handover plan before completion.

FACTORS

-7 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 27 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 90 — succession pressure is live.

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 70+: Senior director is approximately 90 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 27 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
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

J & A Mitchell And Co Ltd is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️

J & A Mitchell And Co Ltd

Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares

ultimate parent

⬇

WILLIAM CADENHEAD LIMITED

This company · SC052072

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

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
J & A Mitchell And Co Ltd Corporate entity	75–100%	—	75-100% shares	06/04/2016

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 →

Similar companies

Active · Wholesale & distribution · PA postcode area

Company	Est. value	Turnover	Net worth	Staff	Age	Opp	Director
SPRINGBANK DISTILLERS LIMITED→ SC041205 · est 1964	£5.47M £4.10M–£6.83M	—	—	24	61y	83	90y
COPPENRATH & WIESE (UK) LIMITED→ SC073174 · est 1980	£4.29M £3.22M–£5.36M	—	—	14	45y	81	62y
BATHROOM ELEGANCE LIMITED→ SC137829 · est 1992	—	—	£1.73M	—	34y	82	63y
CMC (SHIP CHANDLERS) LIMITED→ SC110574 · est 1988	—	—	—	200	38y	82	59y
CUMBRAE SUPPLY COMPANY LIMITED→ SC298312 · est 2006	—	—	£136.4k	—	20y	82	74y
D MCNAIR & SON LTD.→ SC394139 · est 2011	—	—	£3.04M	—	15y	82	61y
JOHN SCOTT MEAT (PAISLEY) LIMITED→ SC100408 · est 1986	—	—	£3.21M	—	39y	82	65y
LAWRIE (FURNISHINGS) LIMITED→ SC285388 · est 2005	—	—	£491.0k	—	21y	82	62y
NAPIER & CRAIG LIMITED→ SC025896 · est 1947	—	—	£96.8k	—	78y	82	87y
SCOTJET LIMITED→ SC190195 · est 1998	—	—	£1.35M	—	27y	82	70y
SEALING SYSTEMS (SCOTLAND) LIMITED→ SC385524 · est 2010	—	—	£175.4k	—	15y	82	63y
T BARBOUR LIMITED→ SC318804 · est 2007	—	—	—	500	19y	82	80y

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

Incorporated1972-12-22

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC46342 — SIC 46342

Registered office

9 Bolgam Street

Campbeltown

Argyll

PA28 6HZ

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-04-30

Last made up to: 2025-07-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-12-16

Last: 2025-12-02