LIONEL HITCHEN LIMITED — The Accounts

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Next accounts due

2026-06-30 (in 1mo)

Last filed for 2024-09-30

Confirmation statement due

2027-01-23 (in 8mo)

Last made up 2026-01-09

Watchouts

None on the register

Cash

£27M

+46% highest in 4 filed years

Net assets

£66M

+12.6% highest in 4 filed years

Employees

141

+5.2% highest in 4 filed years

Profit before tax

£10M

+0.5% vs 2023

Net assets

7-year trend · vs Consumer Staples median

LIONEL HITCHEN LIMITED·Consumer Staples median · n=1796

Accounts

7-year trend · latest reflected 2024-09-30

Metric	2020-10-01	2021-09-30	2021-10-01	2022-09-30	2022-10-01	2023-09-30	2024-09-30
Turnover	—	—	—	—	—	£65,945,773	£82,844,486
Operating profit	—	—	—	—	—	£9,485,107	£9,203,878
Profit before tax	—	—	—	—	—	£9,705,001	£9,757,591
Net profit	—	£4,958,968	—	£6,939,226	—	£7,710,919	£7,452,951
Cash	—	£15,670,010	—	£19,654,515	—	£18,385,773	£26,836,898
Total assets less current liabilities	—	£42,793,258	—	£50,507,614	—	£59,383,921	£66,643,658
Net assets	—	—	—	—	—	£58,211,594	£65,521,627
Equity	£37,063,847	£42,022,815	£42,022,814	£48,962,040	£48,962,040	£58,211,594	£65,521,627
Average employees	—	123	—	132	—	134	141
Wages	—	—	—	—	—	£7,811,420	£7,980,128
Directors' remuneration	—	—	—	—	—	£1,964,640	£1,696,308

Values shown as filed in the company's annual accounts. — indicates the figure wasn't present under that line item in that period. About these numbers

Year-on-year

FY2023 → FY2024 · period ending 2024-09-30 vs 2023-09-30

Turnover

+25.6%

£65,945,773 £82,844,486
Cash

+46%

£18,385,773 £26,836,898

highest in 4 filed years
Net assets

+12.6%

£58,211,594 £65,521,627
Employees

+5.2%

134 141

highest in 4 filed years
Operating profit

-3%

£9,485,107 £9,203,878
Profit before tax

+0.5%

£9,705,001 £9,757,591
Wages

+2.2%

£7,811,420 £7,980,128

Each % is (latest − prior) ÷ |prior| for the line item as filed. The comparison is only shown when the latest and prior accounts cover broadly equal-length periods — short or long stubs (typical around incorporation or a year-end change) are suppressed rather than misrepresented. Lines a company doesn't report are omitted. About these numbers

Ratios

Computed from the line items above — sparklines read oldest → newest

Ratio	2020-10-01	2021-09-30	2021-10-01	2022-09-30	2022-10-01	2023-09-30	2024-09-30
Operating margin	—	—	—	—	—	14.4%	11.1%
Net margin	—	—	—	—	—	11.7%	9.0%
Return on capital employed	—	—	—	—	—	16.0%	13.8%
Gearing (liabilities / total assets)	—	—	—	—	—	16.4%	10.6%
Current ratio	—	—	—	—	—	6.29x	10.12x

Margins divide P&L lines by turnover. Gearing is liabilities over total assets. Current ratio is current assets over creditors falling due within one year. Interest cover is operating profit over absolute finance costs. Sector-distribution context coming next.

Name history

Renamed 1 time since incorporation

LIONEL HITCHEN LIMITED 2017-09-13 → present
LIONEL HITCHEN (ESSENTIAL OILS) LIMITED 1965-02-19 → 2017-09-13

Audit & accounting basis

Accounting basis: FRS 102
Reporting scope: Consolidated group
Auditor: Harris & Trotter LLP
Audit opinion: Unqualified (clean)
Going concern: Affirmed
“The directors are of the opinion that the company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Lionel Hitchen Limited therefore continues to adopt the going concern basis in preparing its financial statements. As stated in note 2.3 to the financial statements, the financial statements have been presented on a going concern basis and the directors have a reasonable expectation that the company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for at least 12 months from the date of approval of the financial statements.”

Group structure

LIONEL HITCHEN LIMITED · parent
1. Lionel Hitchen USA Limited 100% · United Kingdom · Merchants of flavouring materials to the United States of America.

Significant events

“In 2024, revenue growth was 28% (2023: 18%).”
“We carefully consider the effects that our operations may have on the local community and promote environmental awareness amongst our suppliers, employees and partners by implementation of operational policies, continuously monitoring our waste to reduce waste, diverting from landfill and increasingly using recycling facilities and running energy reduction programmes through investing in new technology and making operational improvements. We published our first Sustainability report for the fiscal year 2020/21 in 2022.”

Auditor, going-concern and subsidiary information is drawn from the narrative of the latest annual accounts. About these numbers

People

10 active · 5 resigned

Name	Role	Appointed	Born	Nationality
THOMSON, Darren Julian	Secretary	2016-02-01	—	—
AGNEW, Eva Louise	Director	2012-07-31	Jan 1961	British
BARNES, Alison Mackie	Director	—	Dec 1951	British
BROWN, Timothy Neil	Director	2016-03-07	Feb 1967	British
EVANS, Nicholas David William	Director	2025-09-29	Jan 1975	British
HITCHEN, Alastair Lionel	Director	—	Mar 1953	English
HITCHEN, Peter Thomas	Director	—	Mar 1955	English
KHAN, Mohammed Hussain	Director	2021-10-29	Apr 1972	British
MCNAIR, Helen Irene	Director	2015-03-30	Mar 1965	British
SCANTLEBURY, Colin William	Director	2024-05-03	Oct 1971	British

Show 5 resigned officers

Name	Role	Appointed	Resigned
BARNES, Alison Mackie	Secretary	—	2016-02-01
HITCHEN, Lionel Laughland	Director	—	2008-07-23
HITCHEN, Louisa Meldrum	Director	—	2025-09-16
METCALFE, Timothy Ian	Director	2014-04-01	2024-05-03
WALTON, David Stewart	Director	2012-10-01	2013-06-01

Ownership

Persons with significant control

Name	Kind	Nature of control	Notified	Status
Mrs Alison Mackie Barnes	Individual	Significant influence	2016-04-06	Ceased 2016-04-06
Allos Holdings Limited	Corporate entity	Shares 75–100%, Voting 75–100%, Appoints directors	2016-04-06	Active

Filing timeline

Last 20 of 121 total filings

Date	Type	Category	Description
2026-01-12	CS01	confirmation-statement	Confirmation statement with no updates	PDF
2025-10-03	AP01	officers	Appoint person director company with name date	PDF
2025-09-22	TM01	officers	Termination director company with name termination date	PDF
2025-08-05	CH01	officers	Change person director company with change date	PDF
2025-06-30	AA	accounts	Accounts with accounts type group	PDF
2025-01-09	CS01	confirmation-statement	Confirmation statement with updates	PDF
2025-01-09	PSC02	persons-with-significant-control	Notification of a person with significant control	PDF
2025-01-09	PSC07	persons-with-significant-control	Cessation of a person with significant control	PDF
2024-06-27	AA	accounts	Accounts with accounts type group	PDF
2024-05-10	CH01	officers	Change person director company with change date	PDF
2024-05-10	AP01	officers	Appoint person director company with name date	PDF
2024-05-10	TM01	officers	Termination director company with name termination date	PDF
2024-01-09	CS01	confirmation-statement	Confirmation statement with updates	PDF
2023-10-26	CH01	officers	Change person director company with change date	PDF
2023-10-26	CH01	officers	Change person director company with change date	PDF
2023-05-26	AA	accounts	Accounts with accounts type group	PDF
2023-01-16	CS01	confirmation-statement	Confirmation statement with no updates	PDF
2022-06-20	AA	accounts	Accounts with accounts type group
2022-06-01	CH01	officers	Change person director company with change date	PDF
2022-02-24	AD01	address	Change registered office address company with date old address new address	PDF

Public-record activity

Raw counts from Companies House — last 12–24 months

Filings: 5
Capital events: 0
Officers appointed: 1
Officers resigned: 1

Direct counts from the register. No score, no rating — see the Filing timeline for the underlying events.

Official Companies House page