A.W. HERD & SONS LIMITED

💤Zombieactive
SC027384 · ltd · incorporated 1949-11-26
Investment thesis
Zombie company — trading but stalled; unlikely mover.
Why interesting: Quiet, steady; could be a succession or carve-out candidate with the right conversation.
Why risky: No growth signal; thin margin for error on price.
Why now
Window steady · low confidence
Steady and stalled — no momentum either way. Needs an approach trigger.
What changed my view
Last 30 days

No material changes in the last 30 days.

Last 90 days

No snapshot from 90 days ago — start tracking from today.

Last 180 days

No snapshot from 180 days ago — start tracking from today.

🔒Estimated value
—
Upgrade to see
Turnover
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
£119.5k
book net assets
Opportunity
82/100
Exceptional
🔔
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What this business does
Primary activity: Retail sale of meat and meat products in specialised stores
Sector: Wholesale & retail
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 78-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 75/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 78). 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 (73/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

5 live charges · 2 lenders · oldest 22.2y

30/100
under pressure

Refinance would be pressure-driven, not opportunity-driven. Expect tighter margins and covenant scrutiny.

  • · Oldest live charge is 22.2 years old — likely at or near maturity.
  • · Two lenders — manageable, but coordination required.
  • · Distress signals active — lender appetite narrows.

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
75
Lenders & charges
5 charges (5/5 with lender, 5/5 with type)
90
Directors & officers
7 officers (2 active, 7 linked, 4 with DOB)
81
Ownership & PSC
1 active PSC(s) of 1 total, 1 with control declared
90
Director network
5 connected companies via shared directors
60
Filing history
116 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 declared
Positive net assets
Net assets £119,476
Net assets shrinking
Down £91,792 YoY
Cash YoY
-27%
Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts
Cash
£1k
↓ 27% YoY
Net Worth
£119k
↓ 43% YoY
Current Assets
—
Current Liabilities
—
£0£42k£85k£127k£169k£211kMar 2024Mar 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown
Metric2025-03-312024-03-31
Cash£1.4k£1.9k
Net assets£119.5k£211.3k

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
0
filings
Last 90 days
1
filing
  • • 1 accounts
Last 180 days
2
filings
  • • 1 accounts
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (32 events)Click to expand
  1. 2026-03-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  2. 2025-03-14
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-12-20
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-01-06
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  5. 2022-02-21
    📄
    change-person-director-company-with-change-date
    officers · CH01
  6. 2022-02-21
    📍
    change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
    address · AD01
  7. 2022-02-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  8. 2021-01-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  9. 2019-10-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  10. 2018-11-12
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  11. 2017-12-18
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
    accounts · AA
  12. 2017-01-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  13. 2016-02-26
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  14. 2015-10-27
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  15. 2015-02-05
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  16. 2011-07-28
    🔒
    Charge registered #5
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank PLC
  17. 2011-07-26
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #1
  18. 2010-11-10
    🔒
    Charge registered #4
    Lender: Clydesdale Bank PLC
  19. 2009-02-18
    🔓
    Charge satisfied #2
  20. 2004-03-29
    🔒
    Charge registered #3
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  21. 2004-03-29
    🔒
    Charge registered #2
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  22. 2004-03-18
    ➕
    CAMERON, Derek Robert appointed
    secretary
  23. 2004-03-18
    ➕
    BROWN, Gordon Robertson appointed
    director
  24. 2004-03-18
    ➖
    PAULL & WILLIAMSONS resigned
    corporate-secretary
  25. 2004-03-18
    ➖
    GAVIN, Nicola Lois resigned
    director
  26. 2004-03-18
    ➖
    HERD, Ronald Bryan resigned
    director
  27. 2004-03-18
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
  28. 1999-03-18
    ➖
    GRAY & KELLAS resigned
    corporate-secretary
  29. 1999-03-18
    ➕
    PAULL & WILLIAMSONS appointed
    corporate-secretary
  30. 1993-06-15
    ➖
    HERD, Arthur Wellesley resigned
    director
  31. 1992-01-19
    ➕
    GAVIN, Nicola Lois appointed
    director
  32. 1949-11-26
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As A.W. HERD & SONS LIMITED

Owner dependency

100/100
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.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 22 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 78 — succession pressure is live.

Succession & seller-readiness

100/100
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 78 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • primarySole active director: Only one director in control. No visible successor — buyers solve the succession problem.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 22 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 77 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.)

Group structure

Herd Holdings Limited is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️
Herd Holdings Limited
Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares
ultimate parent
⬇
A.W. HERD & SONS LIMITED
This company · SC027384

Parent relationships inferred from Persons with Significant Control filings. Full subsidiary tree requires reverse-lookup (coming).

Shareholders & ownership

1 active beneficial owner · dominant holder ≥75%
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Herd Holdings Limited
Corporate entity
75–100%
—75-100% shares06/04/2016

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 →

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Peers ranked by estimated value, then turnover, then opportunity score.See all →
🔒Tailored diligence questions

9 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
Incorporated1949-11-26
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC47220 — Retail sale of meat and meat products in specialised stores

Registered office

308 Great Western Road
Aberdeen
AB10 6PL
Scotland

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-02-18
Last: 2026-02-04

Officers (2 active · 5 resigned)

CAMERON, Derek Robert→
secretary · appointed 2004-03-18
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BROWN, Gordon Robertson→
director · ~78y · appointed 2004-03-18
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
GRAY & KELLAS→
corporate-secretary · resigned 1999-03-18
Resigned
PAULL & WILLIAMSONS→
corporate-secretary · appointed 1999-03-18 · resigned 2004-03-18
Resigned
GAVIN, Nicola Lois→
director · ~74y · appointed 1992-01-19 · resigned 2004-03-18
Resigned
HERD, Arthur Wellesley→
director · ~94y · resigned 1993-06-15
Resigned
HERD, Ronald Bryan→
director · ~76y · resigned 2004-03-18
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

5
Total charges
3
Outstanding
2
Active lenders
Status:Lender:5 of 5 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank PLC
Standard security1 property28/07/2011—
outstanding
Virgin Money
Clydesdale Bank PLC
Floating charge1 property10/11/2010—
outstanding
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Standard security1 property29/03/2004—
satisfied
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Standard security1 property29/03/200418/02/2009
satisfied
Lloyds Banking Group
The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
Floating charge1 property18/03/200426/07/2011
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (116 total)

accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2026-03-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-02-09
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-03-14
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-02-18
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-02-28
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-12-20
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-02-14
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-01-06
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-02-21
change-person-director-company-with-change-date
officers · CH01
2022-02-21
change-registered-office-address-company-with-date-old-address-new-address
address · AD01
2022-02-21
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-02-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-02-15
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-01-07
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-02-04