L WILLIAMSON LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC274059 · ltd · incorporated 2004-09-30
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
approaching window · 12-months
Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.
  • · Oldest live charge 21.5y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
Upgrade to see
Turnover
year to Sept 2025
Net worth
£3.52M
book net assets
Opportunity
77/100
Strong
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What this business does
Primary activity: Wholesale of other food, including fish, crustaceans and molluscs
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pursue
Strong opportunity: active trading company with strong profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 77/100 (strong), bankability 80/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 2 live charge(s) created 15+ years ago — likely paid but undischarged. Clean register. Most likely exit: strategic trade sale (63/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

2 live charges · oldest 21.5y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 21.5 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: high (85/100)

Strong data coverage across all sections. AI outputs should be trusted with minimal caveats.

Company profile
address, 1 SIC codes, incorporation date
100
Financials
3 years of iXBRL accounts extracted + narrative notes parsed
95
Lenders & charges
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
7 officers (4 active, 7 linked, 5 with DOB)
84
Ownership & PSC
3 active PSC(s) of 3 total, 3 with control declared
90
Director network
2 connected companies via shared directors
51
Filing history
68 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
77/100Strong
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

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

Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
60
Some acquirability indicators.
Risk profile
85
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 £3,520,157
Cash YoY
+25%
Year on year

Key financials

3 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£2.0m
↑ 25% YoY
Net Worth
£3.5m
↑ 5.4% YoY
Current Assets
£3.4m
↑ 3.4% YoY
Current Liabilities
£0£704k£1.4m£2.1m£2.8m£3.5mSept 2023Sept 2024Sept 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-09-302024-09-302023-09-30
Total assets£3.55M£3.37M£2.72M
Current assets£3.36M£3.25M£2.42M
Cash£2.04M£1.63M£1.07M
Debtors£1.32M£1.62M£1.35M
Net assets£3.52M£3.34M£2.72M

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
1
filing
  • 1 accounts
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
1
filing
  • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (28 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-05-08
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-06-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-05-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-06-08
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-09-06
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  6. 2022-05-19
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  7. 2021-09-30
    WILLIAMSON, Reta resigned
    director
  8. 2021-06-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2020-06-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2019-06-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2018-05-05
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2017-06-22
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  13. 2016-06-13
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  14. 2016-01-25
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  15. 2016-01-25
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  16. 2015-10-29
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  17. 2015-04-05
    WILLIAMSON, Arthur resigned
    director
  18. 2014-04-01
    WILLIAMSON, Reta appointed
    director
  19. 2011-03-08
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  20. 2010-12-01
    HOUGH, Andrew appointed
    director
  21. 2004-11-06
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  22. 2004-09-30
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As L WILLIAMSON LIMITED
  23. 2004-09-30
    HOUGH, Vaila appointed
    secretary
  24. 2004-09-30
    HOUGH, Vaila appointed
    director
  25. 2004-09-30
    WILLIAMSON, Laurence Andrew appointed
    director
  26. 2004-09-30
    OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  27. 2004-09-30
    OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED resigned
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  28. 2004-09-30
    WILLIAMSON, Arthur appointed
    director

Owner dependency

83/100
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
  • +Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "WILLIAMSON" — strong identity link between founder and business.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 22 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

60/100
Strong succession signal

Multiple signals suggest succession is on the horizon. Candidate for proactive outreach.

SIGNALS
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 22 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 22 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

3 active beneficial owners
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Laurence Andrew Williamson
Individual · British · DOB 05/1973 · age 53
2550%
25-50% shares06/04/2016
Mr Andrew Hough
Individual · British · DOB 05/1972 · age 54
2550%
25-50% shares06/04/2016
Mrs Vaila Hough
Individual · British · DOB 06/1977 · age 49
2550%
25-50% shares06/04/2016

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

6 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
Incorporated2004-09-30
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC46380 — Wholesale of other food, including fish, crustaceans and molluscs

Registered office

Blydoit Industrial Estate
Scalloway
Shetland
ZE1 0UG

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2027-06-30
Last made up to: 2025-09-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-08-28
Last: 2025-08-14

Officers (4 active · 3 resigned)

HOUGH, Vaila
secretary · appointed 2004-09-30
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HOUGH, Andrew
director · ~54y · appointed 2010-12-01
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HOUGH, Vaila
director · ~49y · appointed 2004-09-30
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
WILLIAMSON, Laurence Andrew
director · ~53y · appointed 2004-09-30
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2004-09-30 · resigned 2004-09-30
Resigned
WILLIAMSON, Arthur
director · ~83y · appointed 2004-09-30 · resigned 2015-04-05
Resigned
WILLIAMSON, Reta
director · ~79y · appointed 2014-04-01 · resigned 2021-09-30
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
Standard security1 property08/03/2011
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
Bond & floating charge1 property06/11/2004
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (68 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-05-08
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-08-17
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-06-20
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-08-19
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-05-19
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-08-22
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-06-08
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-09-12
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2022-09-06
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-05-19
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-10-11
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-06-23
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-08-26
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-06-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-08-14