KEN CASSELLS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC079095 · ltd · incorporated 1982-06-14
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 42.5y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Oct 2024
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
79/100
Strong
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What this business does
Primary activity: Wholesale of other food, including fish, crustaceans and molluscs
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 60-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 79/100 (strong), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (80/100, director aged 60). 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

3 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 42.5y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 42.5 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Two lenders — manageable, but coordination required.
  • · Legal-friction score 25/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (77/100)

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
3 charges (3/3 with lender, 3/3 with type)
90
Directors & officers
8 officers (3 active, 8 linked, 5 with DOB)
83
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
103 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
79/100Strong
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

Solid opportunity signal. Worth a dedicated memo and management meeting.

Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
80
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
77
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£0Oct 2023Oct 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-10-312023-10-31
Average employees32003300

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

🔒Filing-note intelligence

2 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 (31 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-07-08
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  2. 2025-03-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-06-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-07-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-01-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-06-09
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  7. 2021-04-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2020-06-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2019-12-04
    📄
    appoint-person-secretary-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP03
  10. 2019-12-03
    ➕
    MURPHY, Angela appointed
    secretary
  11. 2019-04-02
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2018-06-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2017-06-13
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  14. 2017-06-06
    📄
    termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM02
  15. 2017-02-23
    ➖
    BROWN, Madeline resigned
    secretary
  16. 2016-06-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  17. 2016-06-08
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  18. 2015-07-17
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  19. 2004-01-16
    ➕
    CASSELLS, Craig appointed
    director
  20. 2004-01-16
    ➕
    BROWN, Madeline appointed
    secretary
  21. 2004-01-16
    ➖
    CASSELLS, Sandra Ann resigned
    secretary
  22. 2004-01-11
    ➖
    CASSELLS, Kenneth resigned
    director
  23. 2002-03-11
    ➖
    CASSELLS, Sandra Ann resigned
    director
  24. 2001-05-16
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #2
  25. 2001-05-16
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  26. 1998-03-05
    ➕
    BAGHRICHE, James appointed
    director
  27. 1997-10-31
    ➖
    WHYTE, Andrew resigned
    director
  28. 1985-02-06
    🔒
    Charge registered #3
    Lender: National Westminster Bank PLC
  29. 1984-02-07
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
  30. 1983-11-01
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Barclays Bank PLC
  31. 1982-06-14
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As KEN CASSELLS 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.
  • +Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "CASSELLS" — strong identity link between founder and business.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 28 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 60 — 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 60. Early succession window.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 28 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 44 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

1 med ·
Charge satisfaction-then-recreation pattern
medium

Multiple instances where a charge was satisfied and a new charge created within 6 months. Suggests active refinancing cycle.

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Sandra Cassells
Individual · British · DOB 10/1946 · age 80
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.

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JOHN DAVIDSON (PIPES) LIMITED→
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——£593.6k—18y8283y
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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
Incorporated1982-06-14
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC46380 — Wholesale of other food, including fish, crustaceans and molluscs

Registered office

Fish House
Wilson Street
Peterhead
Aberdeenshire
AB42 1UD

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-07-31
Last made up to: 2024-10-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-06-14
Last: 2025-05-31

Officers (3 active · 5 resigned)

MURPHY, Angela→
secretary · appointed 2019-12-03
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BAGHRICHE, James→
director · ~60y · appointed 1998-03-05
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
CASSELLS, Craig→
director · ~57y · appointed 2004-01-16
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BROWN, Madeline→
secretary · appointed 2004-01-16 · resigned 2017-02-23
Resigned
CASSELLS, Sandra Ann→
secretary · resigned 2004-01-16
Resigned
CASSELLS, Kenneth→
director · ~83y · resigned 2004-01-11
Resigned
CASSELLS, Sandra Ann→
director · ~80y · resigned 2002-03-11
Resigned
WHYTE, Andrew→
director · ~77y · resigned 1997-10-31
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

3
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:3 of 3 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
National Westminster Bank
National Westminster Bank PLC
Floating charge1 property06/02/1985—
satisfied
Barclays
Barclays Bank PLC
Bond & floating charge1 property07/02/198416/05/2001
satisfied
Barclays
Barclays Bank PLC
Letter of offset1 property01/11/198316/05/2001
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (103 total)

confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-07-08
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-07-08
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-03-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-06-28
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-06-10
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-07-04
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-06-12
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-06-10
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-01-21
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-06-09
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2021-06-09
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-04-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-06-11
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-06-09
appoint-person-secretary-company-with-name-date
officers · AP03
2019-12-04