DATS - DESIGN AND TRAINING SOLUTIONS LTD

📈Growthactive

SC441708 · ltd · incorporated 2013-02-01

Investment thesis

Growth-phase business — story-led; valuation sensitive to momentum.

Why interesting: Trading is scaling; acquirers paying for trajectory get disproportionate leverage.

Why risky: Price often leads fundamentals; dependency on founder often high.

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

£81.2k

year to Mar 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

78/100

Strong

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What this business does

Primary activity: SIC 42910

Sector: Construction

ALSO REGISTERED FOR

85590Other education n.e.c.

Investor take

Pursue

Strong opportunity: conservative operator with strong profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 78/100 (strong), bankability 75/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. 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 (85/100).

Data confidence

Overall: medium (78/100)

Adequate coverage. AI outputs are reliable for the sections scored high; verify the rest in diligence.

Company profile

address, 2 SIC codes, incorporation date

100

Financials

2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed

Lenders & charges

Confirmed no charges registered

Directors & officers

1 officers (1 active, 1 linked, 1 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

28 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

78/100Strong

PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional

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

Business quality

Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.

Acquirability

Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.

Risk profile

Few red flags.

Signal strength

Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declared

Profitable

Profit before tax £1,238

Strong revenue growth

Turnover up 22% YoY

Turned profitable

Returned to profit this year

Turnover YoY

+22%

Year on year

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 · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2025-03-31	2024-03-31
Turnover	£81.2k	£66.6k
Gross profit	—	£20.4k
Operating profit	—	£1.7k
Profit before tax	£1.2k	£-897
Average employees	100	100

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

• 1 confirmation-statement
• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (17 events)Click to expand

2025-12-31
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2024-12-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2023-12-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2022-12-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2021-12-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-12-31
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2019-09-20
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2018-12-07
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2017-12-02
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2016-11-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2016-02-26
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-11-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-05-11
📄
change-account-reference-date-company-previous-shortened
accounts · AA01
2015-04-05
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2014-11-02
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2013-02-01
🏢
Company incorporated
As DATS - DESIGN AND TRAINING SOLUTIONS LTD
2013-02-01
➕
MCGRATH, David Michael appointed
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

+Sole director: Only one active director — all governance concentrated on one person.
+Senior director age: Director aged approximately 59 — approaching natural succession window.
+No director turnover: Company is 13 years old with no director changes — suggests a very tight-knit founder team never broadened.

Succession & seller-readiness

68/100

Strong succession signal

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

SIGNALS

secondaryFounder aged 58+: Senior director is approximately 59. Early succession window.
primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.
secondary12+ year tenure: Director in role 13 years.
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 · dominant holder ≥75%

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr David Mcgrath Individual · British · DOB 01/1967 · age 59	75–100%	—	75-100% shares	01/02/2017

From Companies House Persons with Significant Control filings. Share ranges are banded per the public PSC regime.

Similar companies

Active · Construction · EH postcode area

Company	Est. value	Turnover	Net worth	Staff	Age	Opp	Director
PEGASUS FIRE PROTECTION COMPANY LIMITED→ SC178102 · est 1997	£9.82M £7.02M–£12.63M	—	—	6700	28y	88	75y
MAXI CONSTRUCTION LIMITED→ SC048718 · est 1971	£9.09M £6.50M–£11.69M	—	—	40	54y	88	82y
THE EDINBURGH SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIP LIMITED→ SC206930 · est 2000	£8.27M £5.91M–£10.63M	—	—	0	26y	84	65y
JOHN G. MACKINTOSH LIMITED→ SC281061 · est 2005	£6.96M £4.97M–£8.95M	—	—	241	21y	88	66y
SERS ENERGY SOLUTIONS (SCOTLAND) LIMITED→ SC392085 · est 2011	£6.04M £4.31M–£7.76M	—	—	19	15y	85	69y
COLORADO CONSTRUCTION & ENGINEERING LIMITED→ SC311182 · est 2006	£3.04M £2.17M–£3.90M	£21.12M	—	3800	19y	87	64y
GORDON BOW PLANT HIRE LTD→ SC135116 · est 1991	£1.57M £1.12M–£2.02M	£9.21M	—	6200	34y	86	68y
GEORGE SHARKEY & SONS LIMITED→ SC164725 · est 1996	£779.7k £556.9k–£1.00M	—	—	68	30y	84	66y
3 ED SISTERCO LIMITED→ SC328041 · est 2007 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	18y	83	65y
AMA CONSTRUCTION (EDINBURGH) LIMITED→ SC100586 · est 1986	—	—	—	2200	39y	83	73y
ARMITSCOT DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED→ SC053538 · est 1973 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	52y	83	61y
BALLINA CONSTRUCTION LIMITED→ SC280450 · est 2005	—	—	£215.2k	—	21y	83	58y

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

Incorporated2013-02-01

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC42910 — SIC 42910

Registered office

42/6 East Main Street

Armadale

Bathgate

West Lothian

EH48 2NS

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-12-31

Last made up to: 2025-03-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-02-15

Last: 2026-02-01

Officers (1 active · 0 resigned)

MCGRATH, David Michael→

director · ~59y · appointed 2013-02-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

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