How to recognise one on the record
Zombies rarely announce themselves. They file accounts, keep their status Active, and trade. The pattern shows up across several years of filings:
- Profit that just covers interest. Interest cover hovering around 1x, year after year.
- High gearing that does not fall. Debt stays high while profits stay thin.
- Flat or shrinking turnover. No growth for years, sometimes a slow decline.
- No investment. Assets ageing, no new charges for expansion finance.
None of these alone makes a company a zombie. The pattern is the combination, sustained over time, and it is exactly what five years of filed accounts on a profile reveal.
Why zombies matter to you
A zombie is not about to fail tomorrow. That is what makes it dangerous to deal with casually. It pays its way slowly, squeezes terms, and survives on the patience of its suppliers and its bank. When rates rise or a large customer leaves, the fragility surfaces quickly, and the suppliers who extended normal terms find out they were carrying the company's working capital.
The right response is not refusal but calibration: watch the interest cover and gearing trend, keep credit limits tight against the trend rather than the status, and re-check before each material order. The risk rating on a profile captures the trajectory, not just the snapshot.
Five years of ratios, with plain-English explanations, on every free profile. Spot the trend before it becomes your bad debt.