ARBUCKLE SOFT FRUIT LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC223757 · ltd · incorporated 2001-09-27
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
hardening · 12-months
Already tight — no obvious softening catalysts on the horizon.
  • · Thesis: well-run, low negotiation leverage
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Dec 2024
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds
Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 73-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 73). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 2.6y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Newest facility, 2.6 years old — likely still in initial term.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (79/100)

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
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
4 officers (3 active, 4 linked, 2 with DOB)
80
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
65 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£0Dec 2023Dec 2024

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2024-12-312023-12-31
Average employees200200

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
0
filings
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (22 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-05-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-05-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-10-10
    📄
    mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
    mortgage · MR01
  4. 2023-09-21
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: Sunshine Project 01 Limited
  5. 2023-04-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2022-03-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-05-13
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2021-04-01
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  9. 2020-12-10
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-current-shortened
    accounts · AA01
  10. 2020-06-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2019-11-13
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2018-08-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2017-10-18
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2016-10-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2016-09-12
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  16. 2015-10-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  17. 2001-09-27
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As ARBUCKLE SOFT FRUIT LIMITED
  18. 2001-09-27
    ➕
    ARBUCKLE, Susan Currie appointed
    secretary
  19. 2001-09-27
    ➕
    ARBUCKLE, Peter Alston appointed
    director
  20. 2001-09-27
    ➕
    ARBUCKLE, Susan Currie appointed
    director
  21. 2001-09-27
    ➕
    OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  22. 2001-09-27
    ➖
    OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED resigned
    corporate-nominee-secretary

Owner dependency

100/100
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 "ARBUCKLE" — strong identity link between founder and business.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 25 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 73 — 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 73 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 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
Mrs Susan Currie Arbuckle
Individual · British · DOB 02/1960 · age 66
25–50%
—25-50% shares27/09/2016
Mr Peter Alston Arbuckle
Individual · British · DOB 06/1953 · age 73
25–50%
—25-50% shares27/09/2016

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

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CompanyEst. valueTurnoverNet worthStaffAgeOppDirector
PEACEHILL FARMING LIMITED→
SC144826 · est 1993
£3.65M
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£13.06M—570032y8476y
ANGUS GROWERS LIMITED→
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———150023y8380y
COOKSTON FARMS→
SC036246 · est 1961 · no financials extracted
————65y8373y
CRAIGOWL FARMS LTD.→
SC327648 · est 2007
———250018y8362y
CRUIVIE AND BRIGHOUSE LIMITED→
SC055296 · est 1974
———40052y8389y
ETHIEBARNS FARMING COMPANY→
SC052695 · est 1973
———110053y8371y
R. & W. WHITTON LIMITED→
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———20076y8371y
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——£1.16M—26y8365y
A. C. BROWN (FARMS) LIMITED→
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———070y8281y
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———222y8264y
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————20y——
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
Incorporated2001-09-27
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC01110 — Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds

Registered office

14 City Quay
Dundee
DD1 3JA
Scotland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-09-30
Last made up to: 2024-12-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-10-11
Last: 2025-09-27

Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)

ARBUCKLE, Susan Currie→
secretary · appointed 2001-09-27
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ARBUCKLE, Peter Alston→
director · ~73y · appointed 2001-09-27
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
ARBUCKLE, Susan Currie→
director · ~66y · appointed 2001-09-27
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2001-09-27 · resigned 2001-09-27
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
Sunshine Project 01
Sunshine Project 01 Limited
A registered charge1 property21/09/2023—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (65 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-09-29
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-05-27
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-09-30
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-05-01
mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
mortgage · MR01
2023-10-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-09-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-04-25
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-10-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-03-21
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-09-27
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-05-13
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2021-04-01
change-account-reference-date-company-current-shortened
accounts · AA01
2020-12-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-09-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-06-01