4C DESIGN LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC228254 · ltd · incorporated 2002-02-19

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 21.4y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Dec 2024

Net worth

£72.9k

book net assets

Opportunity

78/100

Strong

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What this business does

Primary activity: Specialised design activities

Sector: Professional, scientific & technical

Investor take

Pursue

Strong opportunity: active trading company with strong profile and bankable structure.

Opportunity 78/100 (strong), bankability 80/100. High owner-dependency — earn-out structure likely required for clean transition. Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 1 live charge(s) created 15+ years ago — likely paid but undischarged. Clean register. Most likely exit: strategic trade sale (63/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 21.4y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 21.4 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: high (81/100)

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

Lenders & charges

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

Directors & officers

9 officers (3 active, 9 linked, 7 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

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

Director network

5 connected companies via shared directors

Filing history

80 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

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

Some acquirability indicators.

Risk profile

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 £72,903

Net assets shrinking

Down £12,228 YoY

Cash YoY

+33%

Year on year

Key financials

2 years extracted from filed iXBRL accounts

Cash

£116k

↑ 33% YoY

Net Worth

£73k

↓ 14% YoY

Current Assets

£155k

↓ 6.9% YoY

Current Liabilities

—

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · accounting standard unknown

Metric	2024-12-31	2023-12-31
Total assets	£72.9k	£85.1k
Current assets	£154.6k	£166.1k
Cash	£115.6k	£86.9k
Debtors	£25.0k	£65.2k
Net assets	£72.9k	£85.1k

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

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Last 180 days

filing

• 1 confirmation-statement

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (32 events)Click to expand

2025-09-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-09-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-09-25
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-09-25
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-09-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-09-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-02-09
📄
notification-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC02
2020-02-09
📄
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2020-02-09
📄
cessation-of-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC07
2020-01-06
📄
termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
officers · TM01
2019-12-31
➖
RANFORD, Susan Kathryn resigned
director
2019-09-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2018-12-10
➕
RANFORD, Susan Kathryn appointed
director
2018-12-10
📄
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2018-09-27
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2017-09-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2016-09-30
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2009-05-01
➖
WALDRON, Stephen resigned
director
2007-10-19
➕
WALDRON, Stephen appointed
director
2007-08-15
➖
INGLIS, Peter resigned
director
2005-11-30
➕
MITCHELL, William Ian appointed
secretary
2005-11-30
➖
LONIE, Nicholas resigned
secretary
2005-11-30
➖
LONIE, Nicholas resigned
director
2005-03-01
➖
MORGAN, John resigned
director
2004-11-30
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
2004-04-05
➕
MITCHELL, William Ian appointed
director
2004-04-05
➕
MORGAN, John appointed
director
2002-02-19
🏢
Company incorporated
As 4C DESIGN LIMITED
2002-02-19
➕
SMITH, Robin Paul Stewart appointed
director
2002-02-19
➕
LONIE, Nicholas appointed
secretary
2002-02-19
➕
INGLIS, Peter appointed
director
2002-02-19
➕
LONIE, Nicholas appointed
director

Owner dependency

68/100

High — earn-out structure required

Material founder dependency. Consider a 2-3 year earn-out and build in a handover plan before completion.

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 24 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.

Succession & seller-readiness

66/100

Strong succession signal

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

SIGNALS

secondaryTwo-director governance: Small-team governance. Succession depth is thin but not absent.
primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 24 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 24 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

4c Design Group Limited is the ultimate parent — holding 75%+ shares. This company sits inside their group.

🏛️

4c Design Group Limited

Corporate parent · holds 75-100% shares · board control

ultimate parent

⬇

4C DESIGN LIMITED

This company · SC228254

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%

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
4c Design Group Limited Corporate entity	75–100%	75–100%	board control75-100% shares · 75-100% voting · board control	31/12/2019

2 historic (ceased) PSCs

Mr Robin Paul Stewart Smithceased 31/12/2019· 25-50% shares
Mr William Ian Mitchellceased 31/12/2019· 25-50% shares

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

6 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

Incorporated2002-02-19

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC74100 — Specialised design activities

Registered office

Rankine House, Unit 13

Port Dundas Business Park

100 Borron Street, Glasgow

Strathclyde

G4 9XG

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2026-09-30

Last made up to: 2024-12-31

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2027-03-05

Last: 2026-02-19

Officers (3 active · 6 resigned)

MITCHELL, William Ian→

secretary · appointed 2005-11-30

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MITCHELL, William Ian→

director · ~53y · appointed 2004-04-05

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

SMITH, Robin Paul Stewart→

director · ~48y · appointed 2002-02-19

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

LONIE, Nicholas→

secretary · appointed 2002-02-19 · resigned 2005-11-30

Resigned

INGLIS, Peter→

director · ~51y · appointed 2002-02-19 · resigned 2007-08-15

Resigned

LONIE, Nicholas→

director · ~48y · appointed 2002-02-19 · resigned 2005-11-30

Resigned

MORGAN, John→

director · ~52y · appointed 2004-04-05 · resigned 2005-03-01

Resigned

RANFORD, Susan Kathryn→

director · ~46y · appointed 2018-12-10 · resigned 2019-12-31

Resigned

WALDRON, Stephen→

director · ~59y · appointed 2007-10-19 · resigned 2009-05-01

Resigned

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
	outstanding	Lloyds Banking Group The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland	Bond & floating charge	1 property	30/11/2004	—

Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.