G M S ENTERPRISES LTD.

🌳Matureactive
SC222533 · ltd · incorporated 2001-08-24
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 24.5y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Jun 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 37000
Sector: Water supply & waste
ALSO REGISTERED FOR
  • 38210SIC 38210
  • 39000SIC 39000
  • 82990Other business support service activities n.e.c.
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 67-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 67). 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 24.5y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 24.5 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: high (80/100)

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

Company profile
address, 4 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
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
7 connected companies via shared directors
66
Filing history
63 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

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

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-06-302024-06-30
Average employees200200

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
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 (24 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-03-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-03-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-09-03
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  4. 2024-03-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2023-03-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-06-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-06-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2020-05-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2019-06-05
    📄
    capital-alter-shares-redemption-statement-of-capital
    capital · SH02
  10. 2019-03-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2018-03-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2017-04-03
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  13. 2016-04-08
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  14. 2015-10-06
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  15. 2015-03-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  16. 2001-10-25
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  17. 2001-08-24
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As G M S ENTERPRISES LTD.
  18. 2001-08-24
    ➕
    MACLACHLAN, Susan Helen appointed
    secretary
  19. 2001-08-24
    ➕
    MACLACHLAN, John appointed
    director
  20. 2001-08-24
    ➕
    MACLACHLAN, Susan Helen appointed
    director
  21. 2001-08-24
    ➕
    BRIAN REID LTD. appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  22. 2001-08-24
    ➖
    BRIAN REID LTD. resigned
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  23. 2001-08-24
    ➕
    STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD. appointed
    corporate-nominee-director
  24. 2001-08-24
    ➖
    STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD. resigned
    corporate-nominee-director

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 25 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 67 — succession pressure is live.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

86/100
Likely off-market candidate

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

SIGNALS
  • primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 67. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 25 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 25 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 John Maclachlan
Individual · British · DOB 12/1959 · age 67
25–50%
—25-50% shares06/04/2016
Mrs Susan Helen Maclachlan
Individual · British · DOB 08/1964 · age 62
25–50%
—25-50% shares06/04/2016

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 →

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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
Incorporated2001-08-24
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC37000 — SIC 37000

Registered office

C/O John Maclachlan Limited
Torran Gorm Industrial Estate
Oban
Argyll
PA34 4PL
Scotland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-03-31
Last made up to: 2025-06-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-09-07
Last: 2025-08-24

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

MACLACHLAN, Susan Helen→
secretary · appointed 2001-08-24
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MACLACHLAN, John→
director · ~67y · appointed 2001-08-24
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
MACLACHLAN, Susan Helen→
director · ~62y · appointed 2001-08-24
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BRIAN REID LTD.→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2001-08-24 · resigned 2001-08-24
Resigned
STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD.→
corporate-nominee-director · appointed 2001-08-24 · resigned 2001-08-24
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 property25/10/2001—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (63 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-03-31
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-08-26
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-03-28
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2024-09-03
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-09-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-03-28
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-09-07
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-03-30
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-09-06
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-06-20
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-09-07
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-06-25
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-09-30
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-05-19
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-08-27