UK Business Succession Index

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

501 of 965 specialised wholesale (building materials, chemicals, fuel, metals) companies in South East — 51.9% — have a director aged 60 or over.

Companies measured965
Director aged 60+501
Exposure rate51.9%
Companies House register·Measured base 3,475,770·Data as at 13 August 2026·Full methodology
965
Companies measured
501
Director 60+
197
Director 70+
51.9%
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 South East measured965
Oldest director aged 60 or over501
Oldest director aged 70 or over197

Of the 501 with a director over 60, 59 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%
Wales16250.6%
East of England34448.9%
East Midlands20745.8%
West Midlands43545.2%
Yorkshire & The Humber39744.2%
North West45043.4%

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