AUTO-TEK LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC085669 · ltd · incorporated 1983-11-25
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 29.8y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Sept 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 45112
Sector: Wholesale & retail
ALSO REGISTERED FOR
  • 45200SIC 45200
  • 45320Retail trade of motor vehicle parts and accessories
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 78-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 85/100. Strong seller-intent signal (93/100, director aged 78). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

2 live charges · oldest 29.8y

85/100
ready

Refinance conversation should be productive — structure clean and timing right.

  • · Oldest live charge is 29.8 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

Data confidence

Overall: high (85/100)

Strong data coverage across all sections. AI outputs should be trusted with minimal caveats.

Company profile
address, 3 SIC codes, incorporation date
100
Financials
3 years of iXBRL accounts extracted + narrative notes parsed
95
Lenders & charges
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
4 officers (2 active, 4 linked, 3 with DOB)
85
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
1 connected companies via shared directors
48
Filing history
110 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

3 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
—
Net Worth
—
Current Assets
—
Current Liabilities
—
£0£0£0£0£0£0Sept 2023Sept 2024Sept 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-09-302024-09-302023-09-30
Average employees6600600

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 accounts
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-04-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-06-05
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-04-09
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-06-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-05-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-03-09
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  7. 2022-03-09
    📄
    termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM02
  8. 2022-03-08
    ➖
    MITCHELL, Margaret Forrester Stewart Bird resigned
    secretary
  9. 2022-03-08
    ➖
    MITCHELL, Margaret Forrester Stewart Bird resigned
    director
  10. 2021-05-24
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2020-06-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2019-05-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2019-05-23
    📄
    mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
    mortgage · MR04
  14. 2019-05-23
    📄
    mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
    mortgage · MR04
  15. 2019-05-23
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #2
  16. 2019-05-23
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  17. 2018-05-04
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  18. 2017-06-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  19. 2016-06-17
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  20. 1999-03-23
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  21. 1996-07-18
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  22. 1996-07-01
    ➕
    MITCHELL, James Alexander Bird appointed
    director
  23. 1983-11-25
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As AUTO-TEK 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.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 30 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 78 — 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 78 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 30 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 42 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

Stewart A Mitchell & Son (Motors) Limited holds 25-50% — a significant corporate investor but not a controlling parent.

🏛️
Stewart A Mitchell & Son (Motors) Limited
Corporate parent · holds 25-50% shares
significant stake
⬇
AUTO-TEK LIMITED
This company · SC085669

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

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Stewart A Mitchell & Son (Motors) Limited
Corporate entity
25–50%
—25-50% shares08/07/2016

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 · Automotive · ML postcode area
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COOPER BROS LTD.→
SC376259 · est 2010
£994.7k
£795.8k–£1.19M
——6316y8382y
BROWNSBURN GARAGE LIMITED→
SC242933 · est 2003
———60023y8358y
GOPAL MOTORS LIMITED→
SC132600 · est 1991
——£29.5k—34y8378y
J.M.T. MANUFACTURING LIMITED→
SC099682 · est 1986
———40039y8375y
A. GRAY & SONS LTD.→
SC239040 · est 2002
——£252.5k—23y8289y
B & B COMMERCIALS LIMITED→
SC371046 · est 2010
———60016y8270y
CANDERRIGG SERVICES LIMITED→
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——£60.6k—48y8261y
GRANT MILLER VEHICLES LIMITED→
SC266620 · est 2004
——£382.7k—22y8272y
HAMILTON TRACTORS (CARNWATH) LIMITED→
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——£568.9k—17y8267y
PARKS OF HAMILTON LIMITED→
SC103161 · est 1987
————39y8277y
PETER VARDY HOLDINGS LIMITED→
SC319442 · est 2007 · no financials extracted
————19y8279y
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————20y8279y
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
Incorporated1983-11-25
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC45112 — SIC 45112

Registered office

Unit 2 Newpark Street
Hamilton
Lanarkshire
ML3 0BN

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-06-30
Last made up to: 2025-09-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-07-15
Last: 2025-07-01

Officers (2 active · 2 resigned)

MITCHELL, James Alexander Bird→
director · ~54y · appointed 1996-07-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MITCHELL, Stewart Alexander Wilson Mcdonald→
director · ~78y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MITCHELL, Margaret Forrester Stewart Bird→
secretary · resigned 2022-03-08
Resigned
MITCHELL, Margaret Forrester Stewart Bird→
director · ~79y · resigned 2022-03-08
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
0
Outstanding
0
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
satisfied
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Standard security1 property23/03/199923/05/2019
satisfied
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Bond & floating charge1 property18/07/199623/05/2019

Recent filings (110 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-04-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-07-05
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-06-05
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-07-08
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-04-09
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-07-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-06-19
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-07-01
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-05-16
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2022-03-09
termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM02
2022-03-09
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-07-08
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-05-24
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-07-14
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-06-23