THE FOUNTAIN (SCOTLAND) LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC241820 · ltd · incorporated 2003-01-07
Investment thesis
Established operating company — standard diligence applies, no dominant angle.
Why interesting: Live, filing, normal profile.
Why risky: No standout signals in either direction.
Opportunity decay
approaching window · 12-months
Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.
  • · Oldest live charge 23.1y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
Upgrade to see
Turnover
year to May 2025
Net worth
£-63.7k
book net assets
Opportunity
79/100
Strong
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What this business does
Primary activity: Retail sale of clothing in specialised stores
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pass (distressed without resilience)
Distressed active trading company — structural issues outweigh the discount.

Opportunity 79/100 (strong), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (93/100, director aged 72). 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

3 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 23.1y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 23.1 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 (72/100)

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
1 year of iXBRL accounts extracted (no YoY comparison) + narrative notes parsed
50
Lenders & charges
3 charges (3/3 with lender, 3/3 with type)
90
Directors & officers
5 officers (3 active, 5 linked, 3 with DOB)
82
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
69 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
79/100Strong
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

Solid opportunity signal. Worth a dedicated memo and management meeting.

Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
80
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
77
Few red flags.
Signal strength
100
Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared
Negative net assets
Liabilities exceed assets by £63,653
Very low cash
Cash position: £55

Key financials

1 year extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£55
Net Worth
-£64k
Current Assets
£84k
Current Liabilities

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-05-31
Total assets£-63.7k
Current assets£84.2k
Cash£55
Debtors£74.3k
Net assets£-63.7k

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
1
filing
  • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
3
filings
  • 1 accounts
  • 1 confirmation-statement
  • 1 address
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (28 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-02-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-11-24
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  3. 2025-04-17
    📄
    accounts-amended-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AAMD
  4. 2025-02-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2024-02-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2023-02-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2022-02-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2021-05-31
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2021-05-11
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  10. 2020-02-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  11. 2019-02-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  12. 2018-02-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  13. 2017-03-30
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  14. 2016-02-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2016-01-07
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  16. 2005-09-30
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #2
  17. 2005-09-30
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  18. 2004-10-26
    🔒
    Charge registered #3
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
  19. 2003-05-08
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  20. 2003-04-08
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  21. 2003-01-16
    VORLEY, Inger Helen Kolnes appointed
    secretary
  22. 2003-01-16
    VORLEY, Inger Helen Kolnes appointed
    director
  23. 2003-01-16
    VORLEY, Stephen William appointed
    director
  24. 2003-01-16
    IAIN SMITH & COMPANY resigned
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  25. 2003-01-16
    ROXBURGH, Roy resigned
    director
  26. 2003-01-07
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As THE FOUNTAIN (SCOTLAND) LIMITED
  27. 2003-01-07
    IAIN SMITH & COMPANY appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  28. 2003-01-07
    ROXBURGH, Roy appointed
    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 23 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 72 — 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 72 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 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

1 med ·
Charge satisfaction-then-recreation pattern
medium

Multiple instances where a charge was satisfied and a new charge created within 6 months. Suggests active refinancing cycle.

Shareholders & ownership

2 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Stephen William Vorley
Individual · British · DOB 11/1954 · age 72
2550%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/04/2016
Inger Helen Kolnes Vorley
Individual · Norwegian · DOB 12/1962 · age 64
2550%
25–50%25-50% shares · 25-50% voting06/04/2016

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
Incorporated2003-01-07
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC47710 — Retail sale of clothing in specialised stores

Registered office

6 Grampian Terrace
Torphins
Aberdeenshire
AB31 4JS
Scotland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-02-28
Last made up to: 2025-05-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-01-21
Last: 2026-01-07

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

VORLEY, Inger Helen Kolnes
secretary · appointed 2003-01-16
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
VORLEY, Inger Helen Kolnes
director · ~64y · appointed 2003-01-16
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
VORLEY, Stephen William
director · ~72y · appointed 2003-01-16
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
IAIN SMITH & COMPANY
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2003-01-07 · resigned 2003-01-16
Resigned
ROXBURGH, Roy
director · ~76y · appointed 2003-01-07 · resigned 2003-01-16
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

3
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:3 of 3 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank Public Limited Company
Standard security1 property26/10/2004
satisfied
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Standard security1 property08/05/200330/09/2005
satisfied
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Bond & floating charge1 property08/04/200330/09/2005
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (69 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-02-26
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-01-07
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2025-11-24
accounts-amended-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AAMD
2025-04-17
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-02-28
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-01-08
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-02-29
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-01-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-02-27
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-01-09
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-02-28
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-01-07
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-05-31
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2021-05-11
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-01-25