Business succession in East Midlands

Name: Business succession in East Midlands
Creator: ExitRadar
License: https://www.exitradar.co.uk/terms

56,817 companies in East Midlands — 32.3% — have a director aged 60 or over.

0.2 points below the UK average of 32.5%.

Companies measured175,964

Director aged 60+56,817

Exposure rate32.3%

Companies House register·Measured base 3,475,770·Data as at 13 August 2026·Full methodology

175,964

Companies measured

56,817

With a director 60+

32.3%

Exposure rate

19,555

With a director 70+

Of the 56,817 with a director over 60, 3,696 score 50 or higher on business quality — an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

By trade in East Midlands

Trade	Companies	60+	Rate
Consultancy Services	9,906	3,840	38.8%
Lettings	10,766	3,830	35.6%
Retail	10,320	2,468	23.9%
Investment	6,956	1,867	26.8%
Other Leisure	5,766	1,747	30.3%
Investment / Fund Management	4,795	1,737	36.2%
Engineering Services	3,780	1,392	36.8%
Property Development	3,316	1,344	40.5%
Agriculture	2,360	1,317	55.8%
IT Services / Consultancy	5,152	1,266	24.6%
Other Specialist Trades	3,378	1,014	30%
General Construction	3,487	991	28.4%
Specialist Clinics / Allied Health	4,225	939	22.2%
Accounting / Audit	2,283	843	36.9%
Management	2,618	840	32.1%
Vehicle Repair & MOT	2,517	673	26.7%
Restaurant / Cafe	3,660	656	17.9%
Road Freight	3,702	597	16.1%
Media	2,231	577	25.9%
Hotel / Accommodation	1,267	555	43.8%
Care Home / Nursing	2,196	548	25%
Electrical Installation	2,521	544	21.6%
Pub / Bar	1,443	543	37.6%
Architecture / Design	1,822	472	25.9%
Plumbing, Heating & HVAC	2,069	469	22.7%
Wholesale Agent	1,217	465	38.2%
Medical Practice / GP Surgery	1,980	442	22.3%
Software / SaaS	1,790	437	24.4%
Financial Advisory / Wealth	1,173	421	35.9%
Vocational & Professional Training	1,327	415	31.3%
Education / Training (General)	1,218	378	31%
Household Goods Wholesale	992	375	37.8%
Precision Engineering / Machining	722	372	51.5%
Motor Vehicle Dealers	1,608	369	22.9%
Civil Engineering	1,180	365	30.9%
Energy	1,095	363	33.2%
Recruitment / Staffing	1,727	346	20%
Marketing	1,561	343	22%
Commercial Cleaning	1,489	321	21.6%
Non-Specialised Wholesale	844	319	37.8%
Electronics / Electrical	580	316	54.5%
Catering / Events	1,319	309	23.4%
Beauty / Salon / Spa	2,084	308	14.8%
Estate Agent	986	285	28.9%
Joinery & Carpentry	1,208	277	22.9%
Legal Services	776	275	35.4%
Fitness / Sports	1,031	268	26%
Passenger Transport	873	263	30.1%
Plastics & Rubber Products	460	244	53%
Metal Fabrication / Structures	490	233	47.6%
Landscaping & Grounds Maintenance	911	227	24.9%
Specialised Wholesale (Building Materials, Chemicals, Fuel, Metals)	452	207	45.8%
Data / Cloud / Hosting	733	201	27.4%
Security Services	735	199	27.1%
Motor Parts	540	193	35.7%
Tutoring & Educational Support	701	190	27.1%
Roofing	683	189	27.7%
Machinery & Equipment Wholesale	377	189	50.1%
Equipment & Plant Hire	459	185	40.3%
Telecommunications	576	175	30.4%
Freight Forwarding & Support	728	171	23.5%
Food, Beverage & Tobacco Wholesale	541	171	31.6%
Arts / Entertainment	574	170	29.6%
Waste Management & Recycling	456	169	37.1%
Home Care / Domiciliary	533	158	29.6%
Print, Signage & Graphics	356	156	43.8%
Childcare / Day Nurseries	475	145	30.5%
Dental Practice	865	145	16.8%
Chemicals & Coatings	283	141	49.8%
Wood & Timber Products	304	129	42.4%
Food & Beverage Manufacturing	320	127	39.7%
Travel / Tourism	434	125	28.8%
Glazing & Windows	306	124	40.5%
Flooring & Tiling	502	123	24.5%
Painting & Decorating	488	122	25%
Early Years / Pre-Primary	286	108	37.8%
Warehousing & Storage	334	99	29.6%
Bakery / Confectionery	343	83	24.2%
Pharmaceuticals / Biotech	303	80	26.4%
Pharmacy	264	64	24.2%
Postal & Courier	625	56	9%
Scaffolding	255	52	20.4%
Plastering & Drylining	316	45	14.2%

Combinations with fewer than 250 measured companies are not listed separately. They are still counted in every total on this page.

Compare with the national index or another region.

Cite this page

These figures are free to quote and reproduce, including in commercial work, with attribution to ExitRadar and a link to this page.

ExitRadar, "Business succession in East Midlands", UK Business Succession Index, 13 August 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/east-midlands/

Need a cut that is not published here — a different trade grouping, a finer geography, or the underlying distribution? Get in touch and we will usually provide it. Methodology.

Method. Figures cover the 3,475,770 active UK companies where Companies House records an age bracket for at least one serving director — 93.8% of the 3,706,712 companies on the active register. A company counts as succession-exposed when its oldest serving director is 60 or over — not the board average, which would hide a 70-year-old founder sitting alongside younger co-directors. The business-quality figure covers only the subset our model assesses — see the methodology for why that is far smaller than the number with filed accounts. Data as at 13 August 2026; updated quarterly, next update October 2026. Full methodology.