Find the UK companies whose owners are ready to step back, before anyone else does.
Succession Radar reads the Companies House register the way a buyer would. It finds owner-managed companies where everyone in control is over 60 and the register shows no materially younger active director or shareholder. Built for corporate finance advisers, business brokers, accountancy firms and acquirers.
The owner is 68. Nobody else on the register is under 50.
Three results free, so you can see the shape of it. No card until you want the full list.
Active companies already carrying a succession signal, at the 60+ threshold
A region and a sector in. A scored list out.
The dashboard, playing a cohort build on five invented companies: choose, build, then open a row to see what lies behind it.
| Working | Score | Company | Signal | Eldest age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pick a postcode area and a sector. | ||||
Illustrative cohort: five invented companies, numbered in a range Companies House does not issue. The table is the product’s own renderer, so the rows look as a subscriber sees them; on the monthly and annual plans the dashboard also breaks each score down factor by factor.
Open a row for what lies behind the signal: control as counts and age bands, the filed accounts and the live charges.
Corporate financeOwner-managed companies where control sits with people past 60 and nobody younger is on the register, area by area.
BrokersThe succession signal, the live charges and each charge's anniversary on the same record.
Accountancy firmsWhich companies in your area have no younger controller on record, so the succession conversation can start early.
The register, month by month
Changes of control at smaller UK companies
When an individual with significant control ceases and the register shows somebody new notified in their place, control has passed on the register. Succession Radar counts those changes month by month, from the same register snapshot the product reads.
July 2026the newest month past the filing window
3,958
changes of control at smaller companies
Companies House PSC register, snapshot of 26 October 2026.
- 3,619to new individuals
- 339to another company
Beside the headline, not in it
- to a company whose own controllers the UK register does not show
- reorganisations: the people who ceased appear among the new parent company’s own controllers
- To new individuals
- To another company
- Provisional
By region,
By sector,
The figures, month by month
| Month | To new individuals | To another company | Changes of control | Company not shown | Reorganisation | Nobody new | Status |
|---|
The work behind the list
The hard part is done before you open the dashboard
Companies House publishes the raw material as bulk files and filed documents, not as a list of companies facing succession. Succession Radar does the processing in between: collecting the register, reading the filings, matching the people and scoring every company.
The whole register, kept current
Every company, officer, person with significant control, registered charge, set of filed accounts and insolvency notice, loaded from Companies House’s bulk files and refreshed as new ones are published.
Shareholdings from the filings
Shareholder lists read from the confirmation statements companies file, scanned ones included, and used only when the list can be shown to be complete. Where it cannot, the record says the figure is estimated.
People, not register entries
A director who is also the majority holder can appear on the register two or three times. Those entries are matched into one person before anyone is counted, so a sole owner is never counted as two.
Scored, sorted and dated
Every company is scored and the list sorted highest first, with the evidence kept beside it: exact or estimated, how much of the record is known, and when each part was taken from the register.
Advisers choose a region and a sector; the reading has already been done. How each step works →
Three shapes of opportunity, not one list
A company with a sole holder over 65 and a company with an ageing majority above a young management team need completely different conversations. The product separates them rather than dumping both into a spreadsheet.
Full exit
Nobody younger on the register. One decision-maker, no visible successor. The cleanest signal and usually the shortest route to a straight acquisition.
Ageing majority
Older holders hold more than half. A junior team already exists but almost certainly cannot fund a buyout. The opening is financing the deal, not replacing the people.
Co-equal ageing
Several older holders, no majority. Harder, because every party has to agree, but retirements tend to arrive together, which makes the timing real.
One record per shape, as the product renders it
Where the numbers come from: ages, shareholdings and the score →
From a list to a first letter
The list is where the work starts. Each record carries what you need for the approach (where the company is, how to reach it, what to check before you write) and keeps track of it afterwards. Succession Radar sends nothing itself: every letter and call is yours.
See where they are
A cohort plots on a map by registered office postcode, so a run of visits can be planned around a cluster. For plenty of small companies that postcode is the accountant’s rather than the works, and the map says so.
Hear when something changes
Watch one company, or every company on screen. A nightly digest reports what they filed (a director appointed or resigned, a change of control, a charge registered or satisfied) as one email rather than a message per filing.
Find the company’s own front door
Find website ranks the candidate sites with the reason for each, such as the registered postcode or company number on the page, and you confirm the right one. It then reads that site for the switchboard, general mailboxes like info@ and trading addresses, each with the page it came from. Never a mobile, never a personal address.
Look the company up on LinkedIn
One click opens LinkedIn’s company search for the name in a new tab, with “Limited” taken off, since LinkedIn pages rarely carry it. Nothing is read from LinkedIn, nothing comes back, and LinkedIn is not told which list the click came from.
Write in your own name
Draft letter starts a first letter from the record, to the registered office or an address from the confirmed website, printed with your details and never on our paper. Before you send, it lists what the register says to check: an estate on the company, a parent company in control, ownership that is only estimated, an office shared with other companies.
Keep the thread
Log each letter posted, call, email and meeting with a date and a note, and keep notes on the company that no other subscriber sees. When a company asks not to be contacted, record it, and letters and contact details for it stop for you.
Beside every record, too: valuation and funding: an asset floor from the filed accounts, an earnings range only once you enter an EBITDA figure, and the regional funds worth checking, with those that finance acquisitions marked. On the annual licence, CSV export takes the list into your own systems.
The approach is yours, and so are its rules. Succession Radar contacts nobody. Letters go out in your name, and if you telephone or email, the rules on direct marketing apply to you as the sender, including screening against the Corporate Telephone Preference Service. The dashboard says so where it matters.
Ask it from the AI assistant you already use
Connect Succession Radar to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or anything else that speaks the Model Context Protocol, and ask about the cohorts you have built in your own words. The figures come out of the same database the dashboard reads, and the assistant is told to quote them rather than work them out.
Works over the Model Context Protocol
- Claude
- ChatGPT
- Cursor
- VS Code
- Windsurf
- and any client that speaks MCP
The Model Context Protocol name and logo are used only to say the connector works with the protocol. Succession Radar is not affiliated with or endorsed by the protocol's project or its foundation.
Across your manufacturing cohorts, 171 of 914 companies are signal-positive. 95 of those are full exits: one decision-maker, nobody younger on the register.
By age of the eldest controller: 140 in the 60–64 bracket, 14 in 65–69, 8 in 70–74 and 9 at 75 or over.
Figures computed by Succession Radar and quoted, not derived. Counts only, with no company named and nobody identified. Companies House data under the Open Government Licence. An illustrative exchange: the cohort and its counts are invented.
Five rows from your Greater Manchester cohorts, by the eldest controller's band, each with what its latest filed accounts say:
- 99014382 · Full exit75 or over · net assets £1.42m, rising three years · 1 live charge
- 99207715 · Ageing majority70–74 · net assets £868k, flat · no live charge
- 99450127 · Co-equal ageing70–74 · net assets £712k, rising · 2 live charges
- 99118240 · Full exit65–69 · filleted accounts, no P&L filed · 1 live charge
- 99332906 · Full exit65–69 · net assets £2.1m, single-year jump flagged
Rows capped at 25 a call and 500 a day, attributed, and quoted from the dashboard's own records. Controllers appear as counts and bands, never as people. An illustrative exchange: every company here is invented.
Company 99014382 is a full exit: one controller, in the 75-or-over band, and nobody younger on the register. What the record says to check first:
- OwnershipRead from the confirmation statement it filed, not estimated from PSC bands
- ControlNo parent company on the register, and no estate recorded
- ChargesOne live charge; its anniversary is in four months. A prompt to ask, not a renewal date
- AccountsNet assets £1.42m, rising three years, with no single-year jump
Every line is a stored field on the record, quoted rather than worked out. An illustrative exchange: the company is invented.
It answers about companies, never about people. No names, no dates of birth, no officer or PSC records travel this route. Ages appear only as approximate figures and bands attached to a company. Anyone who has asked to be removed is invisible to it, the same as everywhere else. And it reads what you have already built: it does not run cohorts, and it never queries Companies House on your behalf.
Pricing
One product, two ways to buy. Cohorts rebuild nightly.
Succession Radar operates under a documented legitimate interests assessment, publishes an Article 14 privacy notice, and keeps a suppression list.
- 3 cohort searches, 3 results each
- Signal type and age bands
- PSC ownership bands
- No card required
- Unlimited results, every sector and region
- Exact shareholdings from filings
- The score’s working, factor by factor
- Outreach letters and tracking
- Recent news on any company, on request
- Rolling, cancel any time
- AI assistant connector: ask your cohorts questions from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor
- No CSV export
Compare: was £149 a month on rolling monthly
£588 +VAT for 12 months, billed today. Saves £1,200 a year against rolling monthly, and includes export.
- Everything in monthly access
- CSV export: take the data into your own systems
- Nightly change alerts
For taking the data into your own systems, and for teams. A bespoke region or sector build is quoted separately.
- Everything in the annual licence
- The API: your cohorts and company records as JSON, read-only, by key
- More than one user, arranged with you
- Removals applied in every response, as on screen
Questions people ask
Is this lawful?
Succession Radar operates under a documented legitimate interests assessment, publishes an Article 14 privacy notice, and keeps a suppression list. Findings attach to companies, never to named individuals, and every figure comes from the public register. Read the privacy notice.
Where do the ages come from?
From the month and year of birth the register publishes for directors and persons with significant control. The day is withheld by law, so every age is approximate and is shown as a band.
Does it tell me who wants to sell?
No. It shows likelihood from the register: who controls a company, how old they are, and whether anyone younger is standing behind them. It never states or infers intent.
How fresh is it?
Cohorts rebuild nightly from the bulk register, and every figure shown carries its snapshot date. Exact shareholdings are read from each company's filed confirmation statement as it is filed, about once a year per company.
Can I take the data into my own systems?
CSV export is on the annual licence. Monthly access is unlimited on screen, and both plans include the AI assistant connector. The API is on the enterprise licence, £6,000 +VAT a year, which also covers more than one user.
Can someone ask to be removed?
Yes. The removal page takes an objection from any person or company, and suppression applies across every customer's view immediately, including the assistant connector.
I own one of these companies. Who are you?
We may have a commercial interest in businesses like yours, either directly or through the buyers and advisers who subscribe. GBB Advisory is a trading name of PromptWorks AI Ltd, the company behind Succession Radar, and may offer owners optional preparation support; that is part of that interest. We are not an independent adviser: before you sell anything, get your own corporate finance adviser and accountant. You can have your details removed in one click on the removal page.
Who built this
Built by PromptWorks
Succession Radar is a product of PromptWorks AI Ltd, a UK software product studio. Founder-led, clearly scoped, built with the people who use it.