J R F CHIMNEY SPECIALISTS & HEATING DISTRIBUTORS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC109701 · ltd · incorporated 1988-03-09
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 37.5y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Sept 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
83/100
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 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 86). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 3 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

4 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 37.5y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 37.5 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 (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
4 charges (4/4 with lender, 4/4 with type)
90
Directors & officers
5 officers (5 active, 5 linked, 4 with DOB)
86
Ownership & PSC
3 active PSC(s) of 3 total, 3 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
129 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.

Key financials

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

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-09-302024-09-30
Average employees161800

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
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (24 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-04-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-03-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-12-11
    📄
    second-filing-of-confirmation-statement-with-made-up-date
    confirmation-statement · RP04CS01
  4. 2024-04-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2023-03-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-01-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-03-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2020-08-19
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  9. 2020-08-01
    ➕
    FRANCEY, Louis Roy appointed
    director
  10. 2019-12-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2019-04-08
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2019-03-06
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  13. 2019-03-06
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  14. 2019-03-06
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  15. 2019-03-06
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  16. 2018-04-03
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  17. 2017-01-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  18. 2000-09-26
    ➕
    FRANCEY, Margaret appointed
    director
  19. 1995-08-03
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #3
  20. 1995-02-06
    🔒
    Charge registered #5
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
  21. 1989-06-01
    🔒
    Charge registered #3
    Lender: Glenrothes Development Corporation
  22. 1988-12-13
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: Glenrothes Development Corporation
  23. 1988-11-16
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
  24. 1988-03-09
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As J R F CHIMNEY SPECIALISTS & HEATING DISTRIBUTORS LIMITED

Owner dependency

73/100
High — earn-out structure required

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

FACTORS
  • -4 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 26 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 86 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

90/100
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.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 26 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 38 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

3 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr John Roy Francey
Individual · British · DOB 12/1940 · age 86
25–50%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/04/2016
Mr David Roy Francey
Individual · British · DOB 03/1962 · age 64
25–50%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/04/2016
Mrs Margaret Francey
Individual · British · DOB 05/1942 · age 84
25–50%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/04/2016

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

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
Incorporated1988-03-09
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC43220 — Plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation

Registered office

50 Nasmyth Road
Southfield Industrial Estate
Glenrothes
Fife
KY6 2SD

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-06-30
Last made up to: 2025-09-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-09-14
Last: 2025-08-31

Officers (5 active · 0 resigned)

FRANCEY, Margaret→
secretary
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
FRANCEY, David Roy→
director · ~64y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
FRANCEY, John Roy→
director · ~86y
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
FRANCEY, Louis Roy→
director · ~41y · appointed 2020-08-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
FRANCEY, Margaret→
director · ~84y · appointed 2000-09-26
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active

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

Mortgages & charges

4
Total charges
3
Outstanding
2
Active lenders
Status:Lender:4 of 4 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
Standard security1 property06/02/1995—
satisfied
Glenrothes Development Corporation
Standard security1 property01/06/198903/08/1995
outstanding
Glenrothes Development Corporation
Standard security1 property13/12/1988—
outstanding
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
Floating charge1 property16/11/1988—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (129 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-04-07
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-09-02
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-03-31
second-filing-of-confirmation-statement-with-made-up-date
confirmation-statement · RP04CS01
2024-12-11
confirmation-statement
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-09-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-04-26
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-09-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-03-23
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-09-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-01-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-08-31
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-03-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-09-01
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2020-08-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-12-16