DECORA LIMITED

📈Growthactive

SC080155 · ltd · incorporated 1982-09-27

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.

Why now

Window steady · low confidence

Stable recent picture — watch for any upcoming trigger event.

Opportunity decay

approaching window · 12-months

Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.

· Oldest live charge 37.1y old — refinance window within 12 months

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

£4.97M

year to Nov 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Retail sale of hardware, paints and glass in specialised stores

Sector: Wholesale & retail

Investor take

Pursue

Conservative operator with a 82-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 85/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 82). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Most likely exit: strategic trade sale (78/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 37.1y

95/100

ready

Refinance conversation should be productive — structure clean and timing right.

· Oldest live charge is 37.1 years old — likely at or near maturity.
· Single lender — cleanest path to refinance.
· Legal-friction score 15/100 — clean.
· Profitable and stable/growing — lender coverage supportable.

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

Lenders & charges

1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)

Directors & officers

4 officers (4 active, 4 linked, 3 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

3 active PSC(s) of 3 total, 3 with control declared

Director network

1 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

101 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

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 102

Profitable

Profit before tax £321,925

Turnover YoY

+1%

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 · FRS 102

Metric	2025-11-30	2024-11-30
Turnover	£4.97M	£4.89M
Gross profit	£2.39M	£2.20M
Operating profit	£239.2k	£73.4k
Profit before tax	£321.9k	£181.8k
Average employees	7800	8100

Amounts extracted automatically from iXBRL. Fields left blank were not reported or not mapped. Values in GBP unless stated.

🔒Filing-note intelligence

3 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

filings

Last 90 days

filing

• 1 accounts

Last 180 days

filings

• 1 accounts
• 1 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (19 events)Click to expand

2026-04-08
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-medium
accounts · AA
2025-06-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-medium
accounts · AA
2024-07-23
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-medium
accounts · AA
2023-08-08
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2022-08-09
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2021-08-26
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2020-09-11
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2019-08-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2018-08-22
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2018-01-08
📄
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC01
2017-08-17
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-full
accounts · AA
2016-06-21
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-medium
accounts · AA
2016-01-29
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-06-10
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-medium
accounts · AA
2015-01-05
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2014-05-14
🔓
Charge satisfied #1
1995-05-01
➕
MCWHIRTER, Darren Thomas appointed
director
1989-05-01
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
1982-09-27
🏢
Company incorporated
As DECORA LIMITED

Owner dependency

83/100

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

+Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 31 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 82 — succession pressure is live.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

90/100

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 82 years old. Natural succession window is now.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 31 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 44 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

3 active beneficial owners

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Darren Thomas Mcwhirter Individual · British · DOB 03/1971 · age 55	—	—	sig. influencesignificant influence	31/12/2017
Mr Thomas Mcwhirter Individual · British · DOB 11/1944 · age 82	—	—	sig. influencesignificant influence · trust interest · firm interest	06/04/2016
Mrs Alfreda Mcwhirter Individual · British · DOB 04/1944 · age 82	—	—	sig. influencesignificant influence · trust interest · firm interest	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.

See pricing →

Similar companies

Active · Retail · IV postcode area

Company	Est. value	Turnover	Net worth	Staff	Age	Opp	Director
BEN WYVIS KILTS LIMITED→ SC272661 · est 2004	—	—	£400.8k	—	21y	83	72y
BONK & CO. LIMITED→ SC064104 · est 1978	—	—	—	18	48y	83	65y
INVERNESS GOLF CENTRE LIMITED→ SC187445 · est 1998	—	—	£293.8k	—	27y	83	63y
PHOENIX FINDHORN C.I.C.→ SC155512 · est 1995 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	31y	83	70y
WE FRAME IT LTD.→ SC231494 · est 2002	—	—	£168.2k	—	24y	83	64y
AC & IC FRASER & SON LIMITED→ SC216589 · est 2001	—	—	£1.79M	—	25y	82	75y
AVCO INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES LIMITED→ SC259260 · est 2003	—	—	£63.6k	—	22y	82	72y
C.D.L.T. MANAGEMENT SERVICES LIMITED→ SC117333 · est 1989 · no financials extracted	—	—	—	—	37y	82	79y
DALLAS DESIGNS LTD→ SC319375 · est 2007	—	—	—	500	19y	82	65y
FARR END ENTERPRISES LTD.→ SC299366 · est 2006	—	—	—	200	20y	82	66y
FRASER BROS LIMITED→ SC241063 · est 2002	—	—	—	1700	23y	82	68y
HIGHLAND HOUSE OF FRASER LIMITED→ SC262923 · est 2004	—	—	£685.8k	—	22y	82	79y

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

Incorporated1982-09-27

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC47520 — Retail sale of hardware, paints and glass in specialised stores

Registered office

Bruceland House

Elgin

Morayshire

IV30 1YE

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-08-31

Last made up to: 2025-11-30

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-01-14

Last: 2025-12-31

Officers (4 active · 0 resigned)

MCWHIRTER, Alfreda→

secretary

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MCWHIRTER, Alfreda→

director · ~82y

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MCWHIRTER, Darren Thomas→

director · ~55y · appointed 1995-05-01

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MCWHIRTER, Thomas→

director · ~82y

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
	satisfied	Lloyds Banking Group The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland	Standard security	1 property	01/05/1989	14/05/2014