PENTLAND PLANTS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC259669 · ltd · incorporated 2003-11-24

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.

Why now

Window steady · low confidence

Steady and tidy — no seller pressure yet. Approach only if an angle opens.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

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

· Oldest live charge 22.3y old — refinance window within 12 months

What changed my view

Last 30 days

No material changes in the last 30 days.

Last 90 days

No snapshot from 90 days ago — start tracking from today.

Last 180 days

No snapshot from 180 days ago — start tracking from today.

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Nov 2024

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

83/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 46220

Sector: Wholesale & retail

Investor take

Pursue

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

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. 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

1 live charge · oldest 22.3y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 22.3 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Legal-friction score 25/100 — workable, but lender will want more DD.

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

Lenders & charges

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

Directors & officers

7 officers (5 active, 7 linked, 4 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared

Director network

1 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

73 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.

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

—

Current Assets

—

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102

Metric	2024-11-30	2023-11-30
Average employees	4900	4900

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

filings

Last 90 days

filings

Last 180 days

filings

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (29 events)Click to expand

2025-09-26
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-07-01
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-12-09
📄
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC02
2024-12-09
📄
withdrawal-of-a-person-with-significant-control-statement
persons-with-significant-control · PSC09
2024-08-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-09-22
📄
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control-statement
persons-with-significant-control · PSC08
2023-09-14
📄
withdrawal-of-a-person-with-significant-control-statement
persons-with-significant-control · PSC09
2023-09-14
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-09-14
📄
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2023-09-14
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-09-14
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-09-14
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-09-14
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-09-14
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-08-24
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-07-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-08-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-11-06
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2004-03-19
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
2004-03-01
➕
SPRAY, Richard James appointed
director
2003-11-24
🏢
Company incorporated
As PENTLAND PLANTS LIMITED
2003-11-24
➕
SPRAY, Hilda Neil appointed
secretary
2003-11-24
➕
SPRAY, Carolyn Elizabeth appointed
director
2003-11-24
➕
SPRAY, David William appointed
director
2003-11-24
➕
SPRAY, Hilda Neil appointed
director
2003-11-24
➕
BRIAN REID LTD. appointed
corporate-nominee-secretary
2003-11-24
➖
BRIAN REID LTD. resigned
corporate-nominee-secretary
2003-11-24
➕
STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD. appointed
corporate-nominee-director
2003-11-24
➖
STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD. resigned
corporate-nominee-director

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 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 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.)

Group structure

Jr Spray Limited is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️

Jr Spray Limited

Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares

ultimate parent

⬇

PENTLAND PLANTS LIMITED

This company · SC259669

Parent relationships inferred from Persons with Significant Control filings. Full subsidiary tree requires reverse-lookup (coming).

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Jr Spray Limited Corporate entity	75–100%	—	75-100% shares	14/09/2023

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

Incorporated2003-11-24

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC46220 — SIC 46220

Registered office

6 Pentland Nurseries

Loanhead

EH20 9QG

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-08-31

Last made up to: 2024-11-30

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-12-08

Last: 2025-11-24