A. GRAY & SONS LTD.

🌳Matureactive

SC239040 · ltd · incorporated 2002-11-01

Investment thesis

Looks cheap but ownership + security both unclear — probable value trap.

Why interesting: Headline metrics may be attractive.

Why risky: No PSC visibility combined with multiple live charges; transacting likely slow and expensive.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.

· Oldest live charge 23.0y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Mar 2025

Net worth

£252.5k

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 45200

Sector: Wholesale & retail

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 89-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 89). 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 · 2 lenders · oldest 23.0y

50/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 23.0 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 (69/100)

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

Lenders & charges

2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)

Directors & officers

8 officers (4 active, 8 linked, 5 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

No PSCs filed (unusual — worth investigating)

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

72 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

82/100Exceptional

PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional

Strong composite across quality, acquirability, and risk. High-priority target — progress to serious diligence.

Business quality

Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.

Acquirability

Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.

Risk profile

Few red flags.

Signal strength

100

Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · FRS 102

Positive net assets

Net assets £252,495

Cash YoY

+112%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£245k

↑ 112% YoY

Net Worth

£252k

↑ 29% YoY

Current Assets

£562k

↑ 36% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102

Metric	2025-03-31	2024-03-31
Total assets	£260.9k	£206.3k
Current assets	£561.6k	£411.7k
Cash	£244.9k	£115.3k
Debtors	£311.4k	£291.1k
Net assets	£252.5k	£196.4k

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

filings

Last 90 days

filings

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts
• 1 mortgage

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (32 events)Click to expand

2025-12-13
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-12-05
📄
mortgage-satisfy-charge-full
mortgage · MR04
2025-12-05
🔓
Charge satisfied #2
2024-12-19
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-11-15
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-11-15
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-11-15
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-11-15
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2023-11-15
📄
termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM02
2023-10-26
➖
ANDREWS, Jacqueline resigned
secretary
2023-10-26
➖
ANDREWS, Jacqueline resigned
director
2022-12-16
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-11-14
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2021-12-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-02-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-12-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-12-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-01-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2011-12-08
🔒
Charge registered #2
Lender: Lloyds Tsb Commercial Finance Limited
2003-05-31
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
2002-11-01
🏢
Company incorporated
As A. GRAY & SONS LTD.
2002-11-01
➕
GRAY, Gary appointed
director
2002-11-01
➕
GRAY, Jeffrey John appointed
director
2002-11-01
➕
GRAY, John appointed
director
2002-11-01
➕
GRAY, Rodney appointed
director
2002-11-01
➕
ANDREWS, Jacqueline appointed
secretary
2002-11-01
➕
FIRST SCOTTISH SECRETARIES LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-secretary
2002-11-01
➖
FIRST SCOTTISH SECRETARIES LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-secretary
2002-11-01
➕
ANDREWS, Jacqueline appointed
director
2002-11-01
➕
FIRST SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-director
2002-11-01
➖
FIRST SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-director

Owner dependency

88/100

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

-4 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "GRAY" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 24 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 89 — 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 89 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 24 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 24 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.)

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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

Incorporated2002-11-01

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC45200 — SIC 45200

Registered office

24 Main Street

Glenboig

Coatbridge

ML5 2QT

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-11-15

Last: 2025-11-01

Officers (4 active · 4 resigned)

GRAY, Gary→

director · ~65y · appointed 2002-11-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

GRAY, Jeffrey John→

director · ~54y · appointed 2002-11-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

GRAY, John→

director · ~89y · appointed 2002-11-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

GRAY, Rodney→

director · ~57y · appointed 2002-11-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

ANDREWS, Jacqueline→

secretary · appointed 2002-11-01 · resigned 2023-10-26

Resigned

FIRST SCOTTISH SECRETARIES LIMITED→

corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2002-11-01 · resigned 2002-11-01

Resigned

ANDREWS, Jacqueline→

director · ~63y · appointed 2002-11-01 · resigned 2023-10-26

Resigned

FIRST SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LIMITED→

corporate-nominee-director · appointed 2002-11-01 · resigned 2002-11-01

Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

Total charges

Outstanding

Active lenders

Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown

			Type	Properties
	satisfied	Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds Tsb Commercial Finance Limited	Bond & floating charge	1 property	08/12/2011	05/12/2025
	outstanding	Lloyds Banking Group The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland	Bond & floating charge	1 property	31/05/2003	—

Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (72 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates

confirmation-statement · CS01

2026-01-09

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full

accounts · AA

2025-12-13

mortgage-satisfy-charge-full

mortgage · MR04

2025-12-05

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full

accounts · AA

2024-12-19

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates

confirmation-statement · CS01

2024-11-20

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full

accounts · AA

2023-12-20

change-person-director-company-with-change-date

officers · CH01

2023-11-15

change-person-director-company-with-change-date

officers · CH01

2023-11-15

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates

confirmation-statement · CS01

2023-11-15

change-person-director-company-with-change-date

officers · CH01

2023-11-15

termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date

officers · TM01

2023-11-15

termination-secretary-company-with-name-termination-date

officers · TM02

2023-11-15

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full

accounts · AA

2022-12-16

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates

confirmation-statement · CS01

2022-11-14

change-person-director-company-with-change-date

officers · CH01

2022-11-14