A practical method for finding owner-managed UK companies that are not for sale yet, using Companies House data, clear criteria and careful verification.
Most acquirers see the same deals. A broker sends a teaser, a dozen buyers receive it on the same day, and the price moves up before the first call. Off-market sourcing is the alternative: finding good businesses before anyone is selling them, and starting a conversation on your terms.
In the UK, the raw material for this work is public. Companies House holds filings for every limited company, including accounts, directors and people with significant control. The hard part is turning millions of records into a short list of companies worth a call. This is the method we use.
1. Write the buy-box before you search
Every good search starts with written criteria. Without them, the list grows but the quality falls. At minimum, agree on:
- Sector, described in plain words and mapped to the relevant SIC codes.
- Geography, as counties, regions or a travel radius from a site you already own.
- Size, using proxies you can actually find, such as headcount, total assets or accounts category.
- Ownership, for example founder-owned, family-owned or no private equity backing.
- Exclusions, with named examples of companies you would not buy.
We cover this step in more detail in our guide to writing a buy-box that filters targets.
2. Build the long list from SIC codes, then clean it
SIC codes are the fastest way to pull a sector from the register. For example, 43210 covers electrical installation and 43220 covers plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation. The catch is that companies choose their own codes, and many pick something vague or out of date.
So treat SIC codes as a starting net, not a filter you trust. Then remove the noise:
- Dissolved, dormant and liquidating companies.
- Recently incorporated shells and holding companies with no trading activity.
- Subsidiaries of groups you are not trying to buy.
- Duplicates, where the same business trades through several entities.
Next, search beyond the codes. Trade body member lists, accreditation registers and local directories often surface good businesses that filed under the wrong SIC code.
3. Use size proxies, because turnover is often missing
Most small UK companies are not required to publish a profit and loss account. Many file micro-entity or filleted accounts, so turnover and profit are often not visible. That does not stop the search. It changes what you measure.
Useful proxies include total assets and net assets over several years, the accounts category the company files under, headcount where it is disclosed, the number of vehicles or sites, and published tenders or contract awards. When a figure is an estimate, label it as one. Your investment committee will ask.
4. Read ownership and succession signals
This is where off-market sourcing earns its value. Filings change before ownership does. The register shows directors with their month and year of birth, and since 2016 it shows people with significant control. From these you can spot patterns such as:
- A founder in their sixties with no younger director on the board.
- A new holding company created above the trading company.
- An outside finance or operations director appointed in the last few years.
- A founder resigning as a director while still holding control.
None of these prove a sale is coming. They tell you where a conversation is more likely to land. Our article on succession signals in Companies House filings goes through each one.
5. Verify every company before it reaches your desk
A long list is cheap. A verified list is what saves your team time. For each company that survives the filters, check that it is still trading, that the address and website match, that the owners named on the register are the people running the business, and that nothing in recent filings rules it out.
Keep the company number on every row. It lets anyone on your team confirm an entry on the public register in under a minute, and it stops duplicates creeping back in.
6. Decide the approach before the first message
Owner-managed businesses rarely respond to generic outreach. A short, specific note from a real person, sent to the owner rather than a general inbox, works far better than a sequence of templates. Most owners will not reply the first time, so plan a small number of well-spaced follow-ups and stop when someone says no.
Where Targetcrest fits
This process takes time to run well, especially the manual checks in steps four and five. Our team does this research for M&A advisors, private equity firms, search funds and roll-up platforms, and delivers the result as a verified target list. If you would like to judge the quality first, request two free targets in your niche.
Get two free off-market targets
Tell us your niche. Our team sends two real targets, profiled and verified, usually within a few working days.
