Engineering Services: business succession in the UK

Name: Engineering Services business succession in the UK
Creator: ExitRadar
License: https://www.exitradar.co.uk/terms

23,885 UK engineering services companies — 35.7% — have a director aged 60 or over.

3.2 points above the all-trades average of 32.5%.

Companies measured66,813

Director aged 60+23,885

Exposure rate35.7%

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

66,813

Companies measured

23,885

With a director 60+

7,718

With a director 70+

35.7%

Exposure rate

Of the 23,885 with a director over 60, 1,236 score 50 or higher on business quality — an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

Engineering Services by region

Region	Companies	60+	Rate
South East	8,644	3,555	41.1%
East of England	5,811	2,308	39.7%
South West	5,376	2,127	39.6%
Wales	2,360	928	39.3%
Yorkshire & The Humber	4,548	1,736	38.2%
West Midlands	4,988	1,859	37.3%
East Midlands	3,780	1,392	36.8%
North West	8,229	3,003	36.5%
Scotland	6,157	2,065	33.5%
Northern Ireland	1,224	379	31%
North East	3,045	920	30.2%
London	12,625	3,602	28.5%

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 Professional Services pages go further: we score each company on business quality and exit timing, and shortlist the ones worth approaching.

See UK Professional Services →

Part of the UK Business Succession Index.

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, "Engineering Services: business succession in the UK", UK Business Succession Index, 13 August 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/prof-engineering/

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.