T FRENCH & SON LTD

🌳Matureactive

SC292873 · ltd · incorporated 2005-11-08

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 15.9y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Oct 2024

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Freight transport by road

Sector: Transportation & storage

Investor take

Pursue

Conservative operator with a 80-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 80). 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: strategic trade sale (78/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 15.9y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 15.9 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 (80/100)

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

Company profile

address, 1 SIC codes, incorporation date

100

Financials

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

8 officers (6 active, 8 linked, 5 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

3 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

60 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

🔒Estimated company valuation

Sector-multiple EBITDA, turnover, and NAV-proxy valuation range with confidence tier — derived from extracted iXBRL financials.

Available from the Pro tier upwards.

See pricing →

Opportunity Score

82/100Exceptional

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 · FRS 102

Profitable

Profit before tax £732,185

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	2024-10-31	2023-10-31
Profit before tax	£732.2k	£798.9k
Average employees	9300	9700

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 confirmation-statement

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 persons-with-significant-control

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (27 events)Click to expand

2025-11-13
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2025-09-11
📄
second-filing-of-confirmation-statement-with-made-up-date
confirmation-statement · RP04CS01
2025-07-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2025-02-10
📍
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2024-07-15
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2023-07-18
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2023-05-03
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2023-05-03
📄
change-person-secretary-company-with-change-date
officers · CH03
2022-07-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2021-06-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2020-07-31
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2019-07-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2018-07-25
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2017-07-13
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-medium
accounts · AA
2016-07-12
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2011-11-30
➕
FRENCH, Elizabeth appointed
director
2011-11-30
➕
FRENCH, Thomas appointed
director
2011-11-30
➕
GRAHAM, Sandra Adams appointed
director
2010-06-15
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Bank of Scotland PLC
2005-11-08
🏢
Company incorporated
As T FRENCH & SON LTD
2005-11-08
➕
MCMENEMY, Elizabeth Ann appointed
secretary
2005-11-08
➕
FRENCH, Thomas John appointed
director
2005-11-08
➕
MCMENEMY, Elizabeth Ann appointed
director
2005-11-08
➕
BRIAN REID LTD. appointed
corporate-nominee-secretary
2005-11-08
➖
BRIAN REID LTD. resigned
corporate-nominee-secretary
2005-11-08
➕
STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD. appointed
corporate-nominee-director
2005-11-08
➖
STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD. resigned
corporate-nominee-director

Owner dependency

88/100

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

-5 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
+Founder name in company name: Company name contains director surname "FRENCH" — strong identity link between founder and business.
+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 20 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 80 — 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 80 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 20 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 20 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
Thomas French Individual · British · DOB 04/1946 · age 80	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	06/04/2016
Mrs Elizabeth French Individual · British · DOB 06/1947 · age 79	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	06/04/2016

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 →

Similar companies

Active · Transport & logistics · KA postcode area

Company	Est. value	Turnover	Net worth	Staff	Age	Opp	Director
MAXI HAULAGE LIMITED→ SC054932 · est 1974	£4.36M £3.27M–£5.45M	—	—	33100	52y	88	82y
CCL LOGISTICS LTD→ SC199192 · est 1999	£3.37M £2.53M–£4.22M	—	—	5800	26y	85	60y
MAXI WAREHOUSING LIMITED→ SC062338 · est 1977	£164.8k £123.6k–£206.1k	—	—	0	48y	83	82y
DISCOVER SCOTLAND TOURS LTD.→ SC313476 · est 2006	—	—	£322.8k	—	19y	83	68y
FIVE STAR VEHICLE DELIVERIES LIMITED→ SC335613 · est 2007	—	—	£279.5k	—	18y	83	59y
MORRISON (DALMARNOCK) LTD T/A DALMARNOCK TRANSPORT LTD→ SC187538 · est 1998	—	—	—	—	27y	83	64y
AERO FASTENER CO. LTD.→ SC174293 · est 1997 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	29y	82	77y
ANGUS LAMBIE MOTOR ENGINEERS LIMITED→ SC264274 · est 2004	—	—	—	—	22y	82	67y
MALMAR TAXIS LTD→ SC644456 · est 2019 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	6y	—	—
P.M.P.S KILMARNOCK LTD→ SC858999 · est 2025 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
PPS - PRIME PARCEL SERVICES LTD→ SC666756 · est 2020 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	5y	—	—
THE KYLE RISE COMMUNITY CAR PARK CIC→ SC881785 · est 2026 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

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

Incorporated2005-11-08

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC49410 — Freight transport by road

Registered office

Stonebriggs Farm

Cronberry

Cumnock

KA18 3LP

Scotland

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-07-31

Last made up to: 2024-10-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-11-22

Last: 2025-11-08