ZERO DESIGN LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC182053 · ltd · incorporated 1998-01-13
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 25.0y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Jan 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
83/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Artistic creation
Sector: Arts, entertainment & recreation
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 62-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (70/100, director aged 62). 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

2 live charges · oldest 25.0y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 25.0 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 (76/100)

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
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
5 officers (3 active, 5 linked, 2 with DOB)
78
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
75 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£0Jan 2024Jan 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-01-312024-01-31
Average employees300300

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
0
filings
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (26 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-10-11
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-09-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-10-24
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  4. 2022-10-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  5. 2021-10-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-05-06
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  7. 2021-01-08
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  8. 2019-10-15
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  9. 2018-10-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  10. 2018-01-15
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  11. 2017-10-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  12. 2016-10-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  13. 2016-10-19
    📄
    mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
    mortgage · MR04
  14. 2016-10-19
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #2
  15. 2016-09-19
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  16. 2016-01-20
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  17. 2006-05-09
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  18. 2001-06-13
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  19. 1998-01-13
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ZERO DESIGN LIMITED
  20. 1998-01-13
    ➕
    JELLEY, Lisa Joanne appointed
    secretary
  21. 1998-01-13
    ➕
    JELLEY, Lisa Joanne appointed
    director
  22. 1998-01-13
    ➕
    ROBINS, Stuart appointed
    director
  23. 1998-01-13
    ➕
    FIRST SCOTTISH SECRETARIES LIMITED appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  24. 1998-01-13
    ➖
    FIRST SCOTTISH SECRETARIES LIMITED resigned
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  25. 1998-01-13
    ➕
    FIRST SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LIMITED appointed
    corporate-nominee-director
  26. 1998-01-13
    ➖
    FIRST SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LIMITED resigned
    corporate-nominee-director

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 28 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Senior director age: Director aged approximately 62 — 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 62. 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 28 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

2 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Stuart Robins
Individual · British · DOB 05/1964 · age 62
25–50%
—25-50% shares06/04/2016
Ms Lisa Joanne Jelley
Individual · British · DOB 10/1967 · age 59
25–50%
—25-50% shares06/04/2016

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
Incorporated1998-01-13
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC90030 — Artistic creation

Registered office

15/2 Mertoun Place
Edinburgh
EH11 1JU
Scotland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-10-31
Last made up to: 2025-01-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-27
Last: 2026-01-13

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

JELLEY, Lisa Joanne→
secretary · appointed 1998-01-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
JELLEY, Lisa Joanne→
director · ~59y · appointed 1998-01-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ROBINS, Stuart→
director · ~62y · appointed 1998-01-13
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
FIRST SCOTTISH SECRETARIES LIMITED→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 1998-01-13 · resigned 1998-01-13
Resigned
FIRST SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LIMITED→
corporate-nominee-director · appointed 1998-01-13 · resigned 1998-01-13
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
satisfied
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Standard security1 property09/05/200619/10/2016
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Bond & floating charge1 property13/06/2001—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (75 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-01-14
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2025-10-11
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-01-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-09-20
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-10-24
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-01-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-10-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-01-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-10-26
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2021-05-06
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-01-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-01-08
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-01-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2019-10-15