ALDERSTON DAIRIES LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC241138 · ltd · incorporated 2002-12-13

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

hardening · 12-months

Already tight — no obvious softening catalysts on the horizon.

· Thesis: well-run, low negotiation leverage

🔒Estimated value

—

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Turnover

—

year to Apr 2025

Net worth

£114.4k

book net assets

Opportunity

83/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 01410

Sector: Agriculture, forestry & fishing

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 74-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 74). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Cash flow review and working-capital discipline. Cash down -71% YoY — forensic review of receivables, stock turns, and creditor days. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 17.6y

45/100

under pressure

Refinance would be pressure-driven, not opportunity-driven. Expect tighter margins and covenant scrutiny.

· Oldest live charge is 17.6 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Cashflow trend is negative — lender view likely cautious.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (77/100)

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

1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)

Directors & officers

6 officers (5 active, 6 linked, 4 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

62 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

Opportunity Score

83/100Exceptional

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 · accounting standard not declared

Positive net assets

Net assets £114,377

Net assets shrinking

Down £69,291 YoY

Cash draining

Cash down 71% YoY

Cash YoY

-71%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£3k

↓ 71% YoY

Net Worth

£114k

↓ 38% YoY

Current Assets

£424k

↓ 1.3% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-04-30	2024-04-30
Total assets	£661.8k	£874.9k
Current assets	£424.1k	£429.5k
Cash	£2.5k	£8.8k
Debtors	£173.5k	£196.4k
Net assets	£114.4k	£183.7k

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

filing

• 1 accounts

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 accounts
• 1 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (24 events)Click to expand

2026-01-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-09-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-14
📄
memorandum-articles
incorporation · MA
2023-12-13
📄
capital-name-of-class-of-shares
capital · SH08
2023-12-13
📄
capital-variation-of-rights-attached-to-shares
capital · SH10
2023-12-12
📄
resolution
resolution · RESOLUTIONS
2023-08-03
📄
second-filing-of-confirmation-statement-with-made-up-date
confirmation-statement · RP04CS01
2023-01-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-09-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-08-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-10-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2018-10-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-12-06
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-01-17
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2008-09-15
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
2008-03-03
➕
HASTIE, Andrew Robert appointed
director
2008-03-03
➕
HASTIE, Gordon Young appointed
director
2002-12-13
🏢
Company incorporated
As ALDERSTON DAIRIES LIMITED
2002-12-13
➕
HASTIE, David Andrew appointed
secretary
2002-12-13
➕
HASTIE, David Andrew appointed
director
2002-12-13
➕
HASTIE, Vivian Margaret appointed
director
2002-12-13
➕
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-secretary
2002-12-13
➖
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-secretary

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 23 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 74 — 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 74 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 23 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 23 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

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Andrew Robert Hastie Individual · British · DOB 09/1986 · age 40	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	06/04/2016
Mr David Andrew Hastie Individual · British · DOB 10/1980 · age 46	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	06/04/2016

From Companies House Persons with Significant Control filings. Share ranges are banded per the public PSC regime.

Similar companies

Active · Agriculture · EH postcode area

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CRAIGENGILLAN ESTATES (NO 1) COMPANY LIMITED→ SC124520 · est 1990	£3.87M £2.98M–£4.77M	—	—	0	36y	83	63y
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DENHOLM POTATO GROWERS LIMITED→ SC089295 · est 1984	—	—	£453.8k	—	41y	83	61y
DODS OF HADDINGTON LIMITED→ SC056452 · est 1974	—	—	£2.26M	—	51y	83	72y
DOUGLAS ORR & COMPANY LIMITED→ SC185757 · est 1998	—	—	—	1	27y	83	70y
EAST COAST ORGANICS LTD→ SC297585 · est 2006	—	—	£1.21M	—	20y	83	63y
EAST LOTHIAN PRODUCE LIMITED→ SC185473 · est 1998	—	—	£8.19M	—	27y	83	73y
S & M GRUHAM LTD→ SC585555 · est 2018 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	8y	—	—
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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.

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Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated2002-12-13

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC01410 — SIC 01410

Registered office

Alderston Mains

Haddington

EH41 3SL

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-01-31

Last made up to: 2025-04-30

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-12-27

Last: 2025-12-13