3DM ENGINEERING LIMITED
🌳Matureactive
03539638 · ltd · incorporated 1998-04-02
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 23.1y old — refinance window within 12 months
🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Apr 2025
Net worth
£187.6k
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
What this business does
Primary activity: Other manufacturing n.e.c.
Sector: Manufacturing
Investor take
PursueActive trading company with a 67-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.
Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 67). 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: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).
🏦
Refinance opportunity
2 live charges · oldest 23.1y
65/100
clean up first
Refinance viable after a tidy-up — address the highlighted items first.
- · Oldest live charge is 23.1 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: medium (79/100)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
2 years of iXBRL accounts extracted (YoY deltas available) + narrative notes parsed
75
Lenders & charges
2 charges (2/2 with lender, 2/2 with type)
90
Directors & officers
4 officers (3 active, 4 linked, 2 with DOB)
80
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
1 connected companies via shared directors
48
Filing history
66 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
82/100Exceptional
PassWatchWorth a lookStrongExceptional
Strong composite across quality, acquirability, and risk. High-priority target — progress to serious diligence.
Business quality
70
Active, clean filings, stable charge profile.
Acquirability
80
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
85
Few red flags.
Signal strength
100
Good data coverage for analysis.
Signals from accounts
Derived from iXBRL accounts · accounting standard not declaredPositive net assets
Net assets £187,583
Net assets shrinking
Down £6,612 YoY
Cash YoY
+27%
Year on year
Key financials
2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accountsCash
£97k
↑ 27% YoY
Net Worth
£188k
↓ 3.4% YoY
Current Assets
£99k
↑ 18% YoY
Current Liabilities
—
Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series
Financials
Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown| Metric | 2025-04-30 | 2024-04-30 |
|---|---|---|
| Total assets | £187.6k | £194.2k |
| Current assets | £99.4k | £84.6k |
| Cash | £97.2k | £76.4k |
| Debtors | £270 | £6.2k |
| Net assets | £187.6k | £194.2k |
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
1
filing
- • 1 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
1
filing
- • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (23 events)Click to expand
- 2025-10-14📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2024-09-12📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2023-09-01📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2022-09-14📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2021-10-18📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2020-10-22📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2019-12-16📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2018-09-03📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2017-10-05📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-fullaccounts · AA
- 2016-09-22📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2016-04-11📄annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholdersannual-return · AR01
- 2015-10-23📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2015-04-13📄annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholdersannual-return · AR01
- 2014-09-10📄accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-smallaccounts · AA
- 2014-04-09📄annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholdersannual-return · AR01
- 2003-03-24🔒Charge registered #1Lender: Hsbc Bank PLC
- 2003-03-18🔒Charge registered #2Lender: Hsbc Bank PLC
- 1998-04-02🏢Company incorporatedAs 3DM ENGINEERING LIMITED
- 1998-04-02➕COWDRY, Karen Deborah appointedsecretary
- 1998-04-02➕COWDRY, Grahame John appointeddirector
- 1998-04-02➕COWDRY, Karen Deborah appointeddirector
- 1998-04-02➕SEYMOUR MACINTYRE LIMITED appointedcorporate-secretary
- 1998-04-02➖SEYMOUR MACINTYRE LIMITED resignedcorporate-secretary
Owner dependency
91/100
Critical — business is the founderThe 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 28 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
- +Founder age: Director aged approximately 67 — succession pressure is live.
- +Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.
Succession & seller-readiness
86/100
Likely off-market candidateStrong acquirability signals converging. Worth approaching directly — this is how off-market deals start.
SIGNALS
- primaryFounder aged 63+: Senior director is approximately 67. Approaching typical UK retirement age — succession thinking likely.
- secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
- primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 28 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
- secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 28 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
cleanNo 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mrs Karen Deborah Cowdry Individual · British · DOB 07/1961 · age 65 | — | — | sig. influencesignificant influence · firm interest | 01/04/2017 |
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 · Manufacturing · GU postcode area| Company | Est. value | Turnover | Net worth | Staff | Age | Opp | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 BRICKIN PLACE LTD→ 11799966 · est 2019 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 7y | — | — |
| 1ST LED LIGHTING LIMITED→ 03948370 · est 2000 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 26y | — | — |
| 1ST MILLENNIUM ELECTRONICS LIMITED→ 03788514 · est 1999 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 26y | — | — |
| 3 BROTHERS FENCING & LANDSCAPING LTD→ 16324620 · est 2025 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 1y | — | — |
| 391 ENGINEERING SERVICES LTD→ 14216683 · est 2022 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 3y | — | — |
| 4 MAINTENANCE ENGINEERING LTD→ 05076635 · est 2004 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 22y | — | — |
| 4 YOUR LONG HAIR LTD→ 16096387 · est 2024 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 1y | — | — |
| 40PARTS LTD→ 16221557 · est 2025 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 1y | — | — |
| 4FORTHECULTURE. LTD→ 15553880 · est 2024 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 2y | — | — |
| 5 STAR PLASTICS LTD→ 14716106 · est 2023 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 3y | — | — |
| 501 VENT LTD→ 15698778 · est 2024 · no financials extracted | — | — | — | — | 1y | — | — |
| A AND L MOORINGS LIMITED→ 16554468 · est 2025 · 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.
See pricing →Company details
Statusactive
Typeltd
Incorporated1998-04-02
Jurisdictionengland-wales
Primary SIC32990 — Other manufacturing n.e.c.
Registered office
Unit F Perram Works
Merrow Business Centre
Guildford
Surrey
GU4 7WA
Filing status
Accounts
Next due: 2027-01-31
Last made up to: 2025-04-30
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-03-30
Last: 2026-03-16
Officers (3 active · 1 resigned)
COWDRY, Karen Deborah→
Activesecretary · appointed 1998-04-02
View their other companies + combined net worth →
COWDRY, Grahame John→
Activedirector · ~67y · appointed 1998-04-02
View their other companies + combined net worth →
COWDRY, Karen Deborah→
Activedirector · ~65y · appointed 1998-04-02
View their other companies + combined net worth →
SEYMOUR MACINTYRE LIMITED→
Resignedcorporate-secretary · appointed 1998-04-02 · resigned 1998-04-02
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
| Type | Properties | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| outstanding | HSBC Hsbc Bank PLC | Legal mortgage | 1 property | 24/03/2003 | — | |
| outstanding | HSBC Hsbc Bank PLC | Debenture | 1 property | 18/03/2003 | — |
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.
Recent filings (66 total)
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-03-16
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-10-14
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-04-14
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-09-12
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-04-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-09-01
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-04-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-09-14
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-04-04
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-10-18
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-04-06
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-10-22
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-04-03
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-12-16
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2019-04-05