HARLAW CARS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC355843 · ltd · incorporated 2009-03-02

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 17.0y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Mar 2025

Net worth

£-53.1k

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 45112

Sector: Wholesale & retail

ALSO REGISTERED FOR

45200SIC 45200

Investor take

Pass (distressed without resilience)

Distressed active trading company — structural issues outweigh the discount.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 65). 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 (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 17.0y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 17.0 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, 2 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

2 officers (2 active, 2 linked, 2 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

42 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

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 105 (micro)

Negative net assets

Liabilities exceed assets by £53,134

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

—

Net Worth

-£53k

↑ 3.5% YoY

Current Assets

£9k

↑ 66% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 105 (micro)

Metric	2025-03-31	2024-03-31
Total assets	£-53.1k	£-55.0k
Current assets	£9.4k	£5.7k
Net assets	£-53.1k	£-55.0k

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

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (19 events)Click to expand

2025-12-31
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-12-05
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-09-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-09-14
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-11-05
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-10-13
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2019-08-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2018-09-05
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2017-11-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2017-10-16
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2017-10-16
📄
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2016-10-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2016-03-30
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-11-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-03-20
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2009-04-28
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
2009-03-02
🏢
Company incorporated
As HARLAW CARS LIMITED
2009-03-02
➕
DUNCAN, David Alastair appointed
director
2009-03-02
➕
DUNCAN, Moira Reid appointed
director

Owner dependency

96/100

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 17 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 65 — succession pressure is live.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.
+No director turnover: Company is 17 years old with no director changes — suggests a very tight-knit founder team never broadened.

Succession & seller-readiness

79/100

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 65. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 17 years.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 17 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

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr David Alastair Duncan Individual · Scottish · DOB 12/1961 · age 65	25–50%	—	25-50% shares	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.

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HAT PAINTERS (SCOTLAND) LIMITED→ SC022027 · est 1942 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	84y	—	—
HUNTLY VEHICLE CARE CENTRE LIMITED→ SC235442 · est 2002 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	23y	—	—
HYDRAMECH ABERDEEN LTD→ SC597772 · est 2018 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	7y	—	—
HYPO TUNE LTD→ SC695789 · est 2021 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	5y	—	—

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

Incorporated2009-03-02

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC45112 — SIC 45112

Registered office

Harlaw Way

Inverurie

Aberdeenshire

AB51 4SG

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-03-16

Last: 2026-03-02

Officers (2 active · 0 resigned)

DUNCAN, David Alastair→

director · ~65y · appointed 2009-03-02

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

DUNCAN, Moira Reid→

director · ~60y · appointed 2009-03-02

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

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

Mortgages & charges

Total charges

Outstanding

Active lenders

Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown

			Type	Properties
	outstanding	Lloyds Banking Group Royal Bank of Scotland PLC	Floating charge	1 property	28/04/2009	—

Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.