UK Business Succession Index

Precision Engineering / Machining succession in South East

529 of 1,007 precision engineering / machining companies in South East — 52.5% — have a director aged 60 or over.

Companies measured1,007
Director aged 60+529
Exposure rate52.5%
Companies House register·Measured base 3,475,770·Data as at 13 August 2026·Full methodology
1,007
Companies measured
529
Director 60+
209
Director 70+
52.5%
Exposure rate

The UK average across all trades is 32.5%; precision engineering / machining nationally runs at 50.8%.

MeasureCompanies
Precision Engineering / Machining companies in South East measured1,007
Oldest director aged 60 or over529
Oldest director aged 70 or over209

Of the 529 with a director over 60, 56 score 50 or higher on business quality — an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

Precision Engineering / Machining in other regions

Region60+Rate
West Midlands94456.1%
South West41053.5%
North West53652.1%
East Midlands37251.5%
Wales18150.8%
East of England42149.3%
Yorkshire & The Humber50248.5%
North East13547.5%

Other trades in South East

Trade60+Rate
Consultancy Services14,45541.6%
Lettings9,87342.9%
Retail6,01526.7%
IT Services / Consultancy5,39225.7%
Investment5,38533.7%
Other Leisure5,36433.2%
Investment / Fund Management4,38040.3%
Property Development4,17046.3%

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

Next step

This page counts director ages across the whole register. If you are looking to buy rather than to research, our Manufacturing pages go further: we score each company on business quality and exit timing, and shortlist the ones worth approaching.

See UK Manufacturing →

See all Precision Engineering / Machining succession data or everything in South East.

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, "Precision Engineering / Machining succession in South East", UK Business Succession Index, 13 August 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/mfg-precision/south-east/

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.