DONALDSONS OF ORKNEY

🌿Early-stageactive
SC740005 · private-unlimited · incorporated 2022-08-02
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
year to Feb 2025
Net worth
£86.8k
book net assets
Opportunity
71/100
Strong
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: SIC 10130
Sector: Manufacturing
Investor take
Pursue
Strong opportunity: active trading company with strong profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 71/100 (strong), bankability 75/100. Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: share sale to pe / searcher (58/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 2.7y

50/100
clean up first

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

  • · Newest facility, 2.7 years old — likely still in initial term.
  • · Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
  • · Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.

Data confidence

Overall: medium (70/100)

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
1 year of iXBRL accounts extracted (no YoY comparison) + narrative notes parsed
50
Lenders & charges
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
2 officers (2 active, 2 linked, 2 with DOB)
90
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
Network not yet resolved
30
Filing history
8 filings
60
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
71/100Strong
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional 

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

Business quality
60
Adequate — check latest filings for context.
Acquirability
50
Some acquirability indicators.
Risk profile
85
Few red flags.
Signal strength
100
Good data coverage for analysis.

Signals from accounts

Derived from iXBRL accounts · FRS 102
Positive net assets
Net assets £86,826

Key financials

1 year extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£52k
Net Worth
£87k
Current Assets
£169k
Current Liabilities

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-02-28
Total assets£463.1k
Current assets£168.6k
Cash£52.4k
Debtors£87.6k
Net assets£86.8k

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
0
filings
Last 90 days
0
filings
Last 180 days
0
filings
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (9 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-09-23
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  2. 2025-07-16
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2024-10-07
    📄
    change-account-reference-date-company-current-extended
    accounts · AA01
  4. 2023-08-17
    📄
    mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
    mortgage · MR01
  5. 2023-08-11
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
  6. 2022-08-02
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As DONALDSONS OF ORKNEY
  7. 2022-08-02
    DEARNESS, Darren appointed
    director
  8. 2022-08-02
    HAY, Justin appointed
    director
  9. 2022-08-02
    📄
    incorporation-company
    incorporation · NEWINC

Owner dependency

58/100
Moderate — manageable with handover

Some founder dependency, but not acute. A structured handover period should cover most risk.

FACTORS
  • +Two-director setup: Only two active directors — typical of owner-managed SMEs but limits succession.

Succession & seller-readiness

36/100
Weak signal

Limited succession signal. Not a near-term off-market candidate.

SIGNALS
  • secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.

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
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Darren Dearness
Individual · British · DOB 09/1979 · age 47
2550%
25–50%board control25-50% shares · 25-50% voting · board control02/08/2022
Justin Hay
Individual · British · DOB 07/1982 · age 44
2550%
25–50%board control25-50% shares · 25-50% voting · board control02/08/2022

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

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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
Typeprivate-unlimited
Incorporated2022-08-02
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC10130 — SIC 10130

Registered office

38 Albert Street
Kirkwall
Orkney
KW15 1HQ

Filing status

Accounts
Next due:
Last made up to: 2025-02-28
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2026-08-15
Last: 2025-08-01

Officers (2 active · 0 resigned)

DEARNESS, Darren
director · ~47y · appointed 2022-08-02
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
HAY, Justin
director · ~44y · appointed 2022-08-02
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active

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

Mortgages & charges

1
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC
A registered charge1 property11/08/2023
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (8 total)

change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2025-09-23
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-08-11
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-07-16
change-account-reference-date-company-current-extended
accounts · AA01
2024-10-07
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-08-08
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-09-01
mortgage-create-with-deed-with-charge-number-charge-creation-date
mortgage · MR01
2023-08-17
incorporation-company
incorporation · NEWINC
2022-08-02