C H TRANSPORT LIMITED

💤Zombieactive
SC246376 · ltd · incorporated 2003-03-25
Investment thesis
Zombie company — trading but stalled; unlikely mover.
Why interesting: Quiet, steady; could be a succession or carve-out candidate with the right conversation.
Why risky: No growth signal; thin margin for error on price.
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
🔔
Follow this company (free)
Email alerts on filings, charges, director changes, gazette notices. No account needed.

Unsubscribe any time from any email. GDPR-respectful.

🔒Generate AI memo →🔒Outreach pack →🔒Corporate story →📑 Reports →Sign in to watch
What this business does
Primary activity: Freight transport by road
Sector: Transportation & storage
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: Broaden director team. Sole director creates succession risk and reduces buyer comfort. Appoint a second director or strong #2. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

2 live charges · oldest 10.5y

45/100
under pressure

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 10.5 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Distress signals active — lender appetite narrows.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (76/100)

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
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
3 officers (2 active, 3 linked, 1 with DOB)
77
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
55 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£0Mar 2024Mar 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-03-312024-03-31
Average employees3300

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
0
filings
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (22 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-10-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-05-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-11-20
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  4. 2023-05-25
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-08-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  6. 2021-07-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2020-12-10
    📄
    change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
    persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
  8. 2020-12-10
    📄
    change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH03
  9. 2020-12-10
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  10. 2020-05-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2019-10-21
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2018-05-28
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  13. 2017-06-01
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  14. 2016-06-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2016-04-19
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  16. 2015-12-23
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  17. 2015-11-19
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  18. 2003-03-25
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As C H TRANSPORT LIMITED
  19. 2003-03-25
    ➕
    HOWLAND, Carolyn Margaret appointed
    secretary
  20. 2003-03-25
    ➕
    HOWLAND, Colin appointed
    director
  21. 2003-03-25
    ➕
    OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  22. 2003-03-25
    ➖
    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
  • +Sole director: Only one active director — all governance concentrated on one person.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 23 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 67 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

95/100
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.
  • primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.
  • 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

1 active beneficial owner
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Colin Howland
Individual · British · DOB 04/1959 · age 67
25–50%
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.

Similar companies

Active · Transport & logistics · ML postcode area
CompanyEst. valueTurnoverNet worthStaffAgeOppDirector
LONG LANE DELIVERIES LTD.→
SC230233 · est 2002
£3.70M
£2.77M–£4.62M
——33124y8261y
HODGE HEAVY HAULAGE LIMITED→
SC197139 · est 1999
£43.6k
£32.7k–£54.5k
£125.7k—10026y8564y
BLUE BUS LIMITED→
SC261919 · est 2004
———190022y8267y
BRIAN & AYRLIE YUILL LIMITED→
SC195845 · est 1999
——£601.6k—27y8258y
CARDEAN COURIERS LTD→
SC272470 · est 2004
——£268.6k—21y8267y
CENSCOT TRANSPORT LIMITED→
SC305620 · est 2006
——£7.5k—19y8273y
CURRIE HAULAGE LIMITED→
SC217416 · est 2001
——£3.1k—25y8262y
E.G. STEELE & COMPANY LIMITED→
SC024956 · est 1947
———879y8271y
GCN (SCOTLAND) LIMITED→
SC143817 · est 1993
——£1.89M—33y8268y
SOKO TRANS LTD→
SC547854 · est 2016 · no financials extracted
————9y——
SPEEDY VAN REMOVALS LTD→
SC865658 · est 2025 · no financials extracted
———————
UK-EU-VAN LTD→
SC870570 · est 2025 · no financials extracted
———————
Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →
🔒Tailored diligence questions

8 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
Incorporated2003-03-25
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC49410 — Freight transport by road

Registered office

29 George Paul Road
Carnwath
Lanarkshire
ML11 8UU
United Kingdom

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-04-08
Last: 2026-03-25

Officers (2 active · 1 resigned)

HOWLAND, Carolyn Margaret→
secretary · appointed 2003-03-25
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HOWLAND, Colin→
director · ~67y · appointed 2003-03-25
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2003-03-25 · resigned 2003-03-25
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

2
Total charges
2
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:2 of 2 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
A registered charge1 property23/12/2015—
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
A registered charge—19/11/2015—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (55 total)

confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-03-26
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-10-20
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-03-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-05-28
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-03-25
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2023-11-20
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-05-25
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-03-30
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-08-01
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-03-31
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-07-19
confirmation-statement-with-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-03-26
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2020-12-10
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2020-12-10
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2020-12-10