UK Business Succession Index

Specialised Wholesale (Building Materials, Chemicals, Fuel, Metals) succession in East of England

344 of 704 specialised wholesale (building materials, chemicals, fuel, metals) companies in East of England — 48.9% — have a director aged 60 or over.

Companies measured704
Director aged 60+344
Exposure rate48.9%
Companies House register·Measured base 3,475,770·Data as at 13 August 2026·Full methodology
704
Companies measured
344
Director 60+
132
Director 70+
48.9%
Exposure rate

The UK average across all trades is 32.5%; specialised wholesale (building materials, chemicals, fuel, metals) nationally runs at 44.8%.

MeasureCompanies
Specialised Wholesale (Building Materials, Chemicals, Fuel, Metals) companies in East of England measured704
Oldest director aged 60 or over344
Oldest director aged 70 or over132

Of the 344 with a director over 60, 35 score 50 or higher on business quality — an output of our own scoring model, not a Companies House figure. How we score it.

Specialised Wholesale (Building Materials, Chemicals, Fuel, Metals) in other regions

Region60+Rate
Scotland20355.6%
South West30953%
South East50151.9%
Wales16250.6%
East Midlands20745.8%
West Midlands43545.2%
Yorkshire & The Humber39744.2%
North West45043.4%

Other trades in East of England

Trade60+Rate
Consultancy Services6,65238.7%
Lettings5,62339.6%
Retail3,69225%
Other Leisure3,01130.7%
Investment2,99930.9%
Agriculture2,85060.3%
Property Development2,64745.5%
Investment / Fund Management2,59737.4%

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

See UK Wholesale & Distribution →

See all Specialised Wholesale (Building Materials, Chemicals, Fuel, Metals) succession data or everything in East of England.

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, "Specialised Wholesale (Building Materials, Chemicals, Fuel, Metals) succession in East of England", UK Business Succession Index, 13 August 2026. https://www.exitradar.co.uk/succession/wholesale-specialised/east-of-england/

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.