DAVID SMITH (FABRICATORS) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC056938 · ltd · incorporated 1975-01-06
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 47.9y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Dec 2024
Net worth
£184.3k
book net assets
Opportunity
83/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 25990
Sector: Manufacturing
Investor take
Pursue
Strong opportunity: active trading company with exceptional profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 58). 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 47.9y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 47.9 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
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
8 officers (3 active, 8 linked, 6 with DOB)
85
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
105 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
83/100Exceptional
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
85
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
85
Few red flags.
Signal strength
100
Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared
Positive net assets
Net assets £184,291
Cash YoY
+8%
Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£157k
↑ 7.9% YoY
Net Worth
£184k
↑ 3.7% YoY
Current Assets
£239k
↓ 1.1% YoY
Current Liabilities
—
£0£48k£97k£145k£194k£242kDec 2023Dec 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2024-12-312023-12-31
Total assets£189.3k£188.6k
Current assets£239.4k£242.1k
Cash£156.8k£145.4k
Debtors£79.4k£93.6k
Net assets£184.3k£177.7k

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

🔒Filing-note intelligence

3 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
0
filings
Last 90 days
0
filings
Last 180 days
0
filings
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (26 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-09-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-11-06
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  3. 2024-11-06
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  4. 2024-09-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2023-11-06
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  6. 2023-11-06
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  7. 2023-08-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2023-05-25
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  9. 2023-05-25
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  10. 2023-05-04
    ➕
    MCGOOGAN, Cara Jane appointed
    director
  11. 2023-02-05
    ➖
    DROY, John Easton resigned
    director
  12. 2022-09-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2021-09-09
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2020-12-17
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  15. 2019-09-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  16. 2018-06-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  17. 2017-08-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  18. 2015-03-13
    ➕
    MCGOOGAN, Cara Jane appointed
    secretary
  19. 2015-03-13
    ➖
    DROY, Barbara resigned
    secretary
  20. 2006-08-03
    ➖
    DROY, William resigned
    director
  21. 2003-03-31
    ➖
    DROY, David resigned
    director
  22. 1996-12-31
    ➕
    DROY, Michael Vass appointed
    director
  23. 1996-12-31
    ➕
    DROY, David appointed
    director
  24. 1996-12-31
    ➖
    DROY, James resigned
    director
  25. 1978-06-22
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  26. 1975-01-06
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As DAVID SMITH (FABRICATORS) LIMITED

Owner dependency

76/100
High — earn-out structure required

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

FACTORS
  • +Two-director setup: Only two active directors — typical of owner-managed SMEs but limits succession.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 29 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 58 — approaching natural succession window.

Succession & seller-readiness

76/100
Likely off-market candidate

Strong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.

SIGNALS
  • secondaryFounder aged 58+: Senior director is approximately 58. Early succession window.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 29 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 51 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
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Michael Vass Droy
Individual · Scottish · DOB 01/1968 · age 58
——sig. influencesignificant influence10/04/2016

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

6 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
Incorporated1975-01-06
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC25990 — SIC 25990

Registered office

40 Underwood Road
Paisley
PA3 1TL

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-09-30
Last made up to: 2024-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-10-17
Last: 2025-10-03

Officers (3 active · 5 resigned)

MCGOOGAN, Cara Jane→
secretary · appointed 2015-03-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
DROY, Michael Vass→
director · ~58y · appointed 1996-12-31
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MCGOOGAN, Cara Jane→
director · ~38y · appointed 2023-05-04
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
DROY, Barbara→
secretary · resigned 2015-03-13
Resigned
DROY, David→
director · ~56y · appointed 1996-12-31 · resigned 2003-03-31
Resigned
DROY, James→
director · ~90y · resigned 1996-12-31
Resigned
DROY, John Easton→
director · ~79y · resigned 2023-02-05
Resigned
DROY, William→
director · ~80y · resigned 2006-08-03
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

1
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Bond & floating charge1 property22/06/1978—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (105 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-11-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-09-30
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2024-11-06
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2024-11-06
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-11-06
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-09-30
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-11-17
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-11-06
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2023-11-06
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-08-31
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2023-05-25
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-05-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-11-07
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-09-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-11-27