BENTLEYS FASHIONS LIMITED

🌳Matureactive

SC230547 · ltd · incorporated 2002-04-19

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 23.8y old — refinance window within 12 months

🔒Estimated value

—

Upgrade to see

Turnover

—

year to Apr 2025

Net worth

—

book net assets

Opportunity

82/100

Exceptional

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What this business does

Primary activity: Retail sale of clothing in specialised stores

Sector: Wholesale & retail

Investor take

Pursue

Active trading company with a 73-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 82/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (83/100, director aged 73). Share purchase looks the cleaner deal structure. Biggest value-creation lever: Discharge stale live charges. 3 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

3 live charges · oldest 23.8y

65/100

clean up first

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

· Oldest live charge is 23.8 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 (76/100)

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

3 charges (3/3 with lender, 3/3 with type)

Directors & officers

5 officers (3 active, 5 linked, 2 with DOB)

Ownership & PSC

2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared

Director network

Network not yet resolved

Filing history

65 filings on record

Gazette notices

No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)

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.

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	2025-04-30	2024-04-30
Average employees	13	1500

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 accounts

Last 180 days

filing

• 1 accounts

Counts from Companies House filing history.

Corporate timeline (27 events)Click to expand

2026-01-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2025-01-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2024-01-31
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2023-01-31
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2022-02-02
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2021-03-17
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2020-01-28
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2019-01-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2018-01-18
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2018-01-18
📄
change-to-a-person-with-significant-control
persons-with-significant-control · PSC04
2018-01-15
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-full
accounts · AA
2017-01-31
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2016-06-01
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2016-02-04
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2015-05-18
📄
annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
annual-return · AR01
2015-01-29
📄
accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
accounts · AA
2003-02-25
🔒
Charge registered #3
Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
2002-11-06
🔒
Charge registered #2
Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
2002-06-19
🔒
Charge registered #1
Lender: The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland
2002-04-19
🏢
Company incorporated
As BENTLEYS FASHIONS LIMITED
2002-04-19
➕
MACKIE, Vernon James appointed
secretary
2002-04-19
➕
MACKIE, Irene Fraser appointed
director
2002-04-19
➕
MACKIE, Vernon James appointed
director
2002-04-19
➕
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-secretary
2002-04-19
➖
OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-secretary
2002-04-19
➕
JORDANS (SCOTLAND) LIMITED appointed
corporate-nominee-director
2002-04-19
➖
JORDANS (SCOTLAND) LIMITED resigned
corporate-nominee-director

Owner dependency

91/100

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

+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.
+Founder age: Director aged approximately 73 — succession pressure is live.
+Family involvement: Multiple officers share a surname — likely family business, which concentrates governance.

Succession & seller-readiness

96/100

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 73 years old. Natural succession window is now.
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.)

Shareholders & ownership

2 active beneficial owners

Name	Shares	Voting rights	Nature of control	Notified
Mr Vernon James Mackie Individual · British · DOB 09/1961 · age 65	50–75%	50–75%	50-75% shares · 50-75% voting	06/04/2016
Mrs Irene Fraser Mackie Individual · British · DOB 01/1953 · age 73	25–50%	25–50%	25-50% shares · 25-50% voting	06/04/2016

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

8 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.

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Company details

Statusactive

Typeltd

Incorporated2002-04-19

Jurisdictionscotland

Primary SIC47710 — Retail sale of clothing in specialised stores

Registered office

Rosewood

Raemoir Road

Banchory

Kincardineshire

AB31 4ET

Filing status

Accounts

Next due: 2027-01-31

Last made up to: 2025-04-30

Confirmation statement

Next due: 2026-05-03

Last: 2025-04-19

Officers (3 active · 2 resigned)

MACKIE, Vernon James→

secretary · appointed 2002-04-19

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MACKIE, Irene Fraser→

director · ~73y · appointed 2002-04-19

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

MACKIE, Vernon James→

director · ~65y · appointed 2002-04-19

View their other companies + combined net worth →

Active

OSWALDS OF EDINBURGH LIMITED→

corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2002-04-19 · resigned 2002-04-19

Resigned

JORDANS (SCOTLAND) LIMITED→

corporate-nominee-director · appointed 2002-04-19 · resigned 2002-04-19

Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

Total charges

Outstanding

Active lenders

Status:Lender:3 of 3 shown

		Type	Properties
outstanding	Lloyds Banking Group The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland	Standard security	1 property	25/02/2003	—
outstanding	Lloyds Banking Group The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland	Standard security	1 property	06/11/2002	—
outstanding	Lloyds Banking Group The Governor and Company of the Bank of Scotland	Bond & floating charge	1 property	19/06/2002	—

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