Retail succession in Scotland

Name: Retail business succession in Scotland
Creator: ExitRadar
License: https://www.exitradar.co.uk/terms

2,697 of 10,652 retail companies in Scotland (25.3%) have a director aged 60 or over.

That is the 5th highest of 12 UK regions for this trade.

Companies measured10,652

Director aged 60+2,697

Exposure rate25.3%

Companies House register·Measured base 3,631,842·Data as at 11 October 2026·Full methodology

10,652

Companies measured

2,697

Director 60+

878

Director 70+

25.3%

Exposure rate

The UK average across all trades is 32.4%; retail nationally runs at 21.7%.

Measure	Companies
Retail companies in Scotland measured	10,652
Oldest director aged 60 or over	2,697
Oldest director aged 70 or over	878

Of the 2,697 with a director over 60, 201 score 50 or higher on business quality. That figure is an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

Retail in other regions

Region	60+	Rate
South West	4,219	31.7%
Wales	1,627	27.9%
South East	7,147	27.8%
Northern Ireland	1,052	25.8%
East Midlands	3,005	24.6%
North East	1,130	23.6%
East of England	4,241	23.4%
Yorkshire & The Humber	3,236	22.5%

Other trades in Scotland

Trade	60+	Rate
Lettings	4,028	37%
Consultancy Services	3,979	40.5%
Agriculture	2,268	50.9%
Other Leisure	2,235	32.6%
Engineering Services	2,119	33.4%
Investment	2,115	33.3%
Investment / Fund Management	1,634	40.5%
Hotel / Accommodation	1,490	46.7%

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

See UK Retail →

See all Retail succession data or everything in Scotland.

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, "Retail succession in Scotland", UK Business Succession Index, 11 October 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/retail-store/scotland/

Need a cut that is not published here, such as 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 3,631,842 active UK companies where Companies House records an age bracket for at least one serving director (94.0% of the 3,863,328 companies on the active register). A company counts as succession-exposed when its oldest serving director is 60 or over. We do not use 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 11 October 2026; updated quarterly, next update January 2027. Full methodology.