COLINTON NURSERIES LIMITED

🌳Matureactive
SC245941 · ltd · incorporated 2003-03-18
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.
Why now
Window steady · low confidence
Steady and tidy — no seller pressure yet. Approach only if an angle opens.
Opportunity decay
approaching window · 12-months
Approaching a transaction window — refinance or sale event plausible in the next 12 months.
  • · Oldest live charge 22.9y 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
—
year to Mar 2025
Net worth
—
book net assets
Opportunity
83/100
Exceptional
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What this business does
Primary activity: Pre-primary education
Sector: Education
Investor take
Pursue
Active trading company with a 75-year-old founder — textbook succession opportunity.

Opportunity 83/100 (exceptional), bankability 80/100. Strong seller-intent signal (63/100, director aged 75). 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: share sale to pe / searcher (65/100).

🏦

Refinance opportunity

1 live charge · oldest 22.9y

65/100
clean up first

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

  • · Oldest live charge is 22.9 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
75
Lenders & charges
1 charges (1/1 with lender, 1/1 with type)
90
Directors & officers
10 officers (5 active, 10 linked, 7 with DOB)
84
Ownership & PSC
2 active PSC(s) of 2 total, 2 with control declared
90
Director network
7 connected companies via shared directors
66
Filing history
68 filings on record
85
Gazette notices
No matching gazette notices (standard for active companies)
60
Opportunity Score
83/100Exceptional
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
85
Strong succession / seller-readiness signals.
Risk profile
85
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
—
£0£0£0£0£0£0Mar 2024Mar 2025

Hover to see exact values · click legend to toggle series

Financials

Extracted from Companies House accounts · FRS 102
Metric2025-03-312024-03-31
Average employees21003000

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 confirmation-statement
Last 180 days
2
filings
  • • 1 confirmation-statement
  • • 1 accounts
Counts from Companies House filing history.
Corporate timeline (32 events)Click to expand
  1. 2025-12-22
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  2. 2024-12-18
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
    accounts · AA
  3. 2023-11-23
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  4. 2023-03-13
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  5. 2023-03-13
    📄
    appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
    officers · AP01
  6. 2023-03-10
    ➕
    DEEGAN, Christopher Martin appointed
    director
  7. 2023-03-10
    ➕
    DEEGAN, Lisa Young appointed
    director
  8. 2022-12-10
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  9. 2021-11-26
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  10. 2020-12-24
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  11. 2019-12-24
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  12. 2018-11-29
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  13. 2018-11-20
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  14. 2018-11-11
    ➖
    CHINNERY, May resigned
    director
  15. 2017-07-18
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
    accounts · AA
  16. 2016-09-07
    📄
    accounts-with-accounts-type-total-exemption-small
    accounts · AA
  17. 2016-04-13
    📄
    annual-return-company-with-made-up-date-full-list-shareholders
    annual-return · AR01
  18. 2016-04-13
    📄
    termination-director-company-with-name-termination-date
    officers · TM01
  19. 2015-09-30
    ➖
    TOWERS, Lisa Young resigned
    director
  20. 2013-01-12
    ➖
    CHINNERY, Charles Edward resigned
    director
  21. 2004-04-06
    ➕
    TOWERS, Lisa Young appointed
    director
  22. 2003-12-18
    ➕
    CHINNERY, Charles Edward appointed
    director
  23. 2003-12-18
    ➕
    CHINNERY, May appointed
    director
  24. 2003-06-18
    🔒
    Charge registered #1
    Lender: National Westminster Bank PLC
  25. 2003-04-08
    ➕
    TOWERS, Alexander Crawford appointed
    secretary
  26. 2003-04-08
    ➕
    TOWERS, Alexander Crawford appointed
    director
  27. 2003-04-08
    ➕
    TOWERS, Marion Young appointed
    director
  28. 2003-04-08
    ➖
    BRIAN REID LTD. resigned
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  29. 2003-04-08
    ➖
    STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD. resigned
    corporate-nominee-director
  30. 2003-03-18
    🏢
    Company incorporated
    As COLINTON NURSERIES LIMITED
  31. 2003-03-18
    ➕
    BRIAN REID LTD. appointed
    corporate-nominee-secretary
  32. 2003-03-18
    ➕
    STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD. appointed
    corporate-nominee-director

Owner dependency

73/100
High — earn-out structure required

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

FACTORS
  • -4 active directors: Broader management team in place — suggests transferable governance.
  • +Long-tenure founder: Senior director has been in place 23 years — deep operational knowledge concentrated in one person.
  • +Founder age: Director aged approximately 75 — 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 75 years old. Natural succession window is now.
  • primary20+ year tenure: Director in role 23 years. Very long tenure is a classic succession signal.
  • secondaryStable-but-static management: Company is 23 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
NameSharesVoting rightsNature of controlNotified
Mr Alexander Crawford Towers
Individual · British · DOB 01/1951 · age 75
25–50%
—25-50% shares18/03/2017
Mrs Marion Young Towers
Individual · British · DOB 07/1952 · age 74
25–50%
—25-50% shares18/03/2017

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 →

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———90021y8364y
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——£123.3k—26y8379y
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———11324y8361y
THE LEITH SCHOOL OF ART→
SC111089 · est 1988 · no financials extracted
————38y8376y
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———939y8377y
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———226y8259y
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——£1.20M—22y8274y
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————19y8261y
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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
Incorporated2003-03-18
Jurisdictionscotland
Primary SIC85100 — Pre-primary education

Registered office

59 Hailes Gardens
Colinton
Edinburgh
EH13 0JH

Filing status

Accounts
Next due: 2026-12-31
Last made up to: 2025-03-31
Confirmation statement
Next due: 2027-04-01
Last: 2026-03-18

Officers (5 active · 5 resigned)

TOWERS, Alexander Crawford→
secretary · appointed 2003-04-08
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
DEEGAN, Christopher Martin→
director · ~50y · appointed 2023-03-10
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
DEEGAN, Lisa Young→
director · ~43y · appointed 2023-03-10
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
TOWERS, Alexander Crawford→
director · ~75y · appointed 2003-04-08
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
TOWERS, Marion Young→
director · ~74y · appointed 2003-04-08
View their other companies + combined net worth →
Active
BRIAN REID LTD.→
corporate-nominee-secretary · appointed 2003-03-18 · resigned 2003-04-08
Resigned
CHINNERY, Charles Edward→
director · ~92y · appointed 2003-12-18 · resigned 2013-01-12
Resigned
CHINNERY, May→
director · ~88y · appointed 2003-12-18 · resigned 2018-11-11
Resigned
TOWERS, Lisa Young→
director · ~43y · appointed 2004-04-06 · resigned 2015-09-30
Resigned
STEPHEN MABBOTT LTD.→
corporate-nominee-director · appointed 2003-03-18 · resigned 2003-04-08
Resigned

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

Mortgages & charges

1
Total charges
1
Outstanding
1
Active lenders
Status:Lender:1 of 1 shown
TypeProperties
outstanding
National Westminster Bank
National Westminster Bank PLC
Bond & floating charge1 property18/06/2003—
Click column headers to sort. Use filters above to narrow by status and lender.

Recent filings (68 total)

confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2026-03-25
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2025-12-22
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2025-03-31
accounts-with-accounts-type-unaudited-abridged
accounts · AA
2024-12-18
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2024-03-18
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2023-11-23
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2023-03-20
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-03-13
appoint-person-director-company-with-name-date
officers · AP01
2023-03-13
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2022-12-10
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2022-03-26
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2021-11-26
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2021-04-06
accounts-with-accounts-type-micro-entity
accounts · AA
2020-12-24
confirmation-statement-with-no-updates
confirmation-statement · CS01
2020-04-01