HOPE SIXTEEN (NO.87) LIMITED

• ◆

  1 PSC ceased in last 24 months

  Significant control changed hands — see the Ownership section.

Values shown as filed in the company's annual accounts. — indicates the figure wasn't present under that line item in that period. About these numbers

Margins divide P&L lines by turnover. Gearing is liabilities over total assets. Current ratio is current assets over creditors falling due within one year. Interest cover is operating profit over absolute finance costs. Sector-distribution context coming next.

Accounting basis

FRS 102

Reporting scope

Consolidated group

Auditor

Johnston Carmichael LLP

Audit opinion

Unqualified (clean)

Going concern

Affirmed

“Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group or parent company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.”

Group structure

1. HOPE SIXTEEN (NO.87) LIMITED · parent
   1. HS Holdings 1979 Limited 67.5% · Intermediate holding company
   2. Highland Spring Limited 67.5% · Bottling and sale of natural source waters
   3. Gleneagles Spring Water Company Limited 67.5% · Dormant
   4. Speyside Glenlivet (HSL) Company Limited 67.5% · Non-trading
   5. Lothian Shelf (674) Limited 67.5% · Dormant

Significant events

• “Highland Spring maintained its status as the UK's leading natural source water brand, despite challenges such as continued inflation, rising real wages, and increasing consumer financial pressures.”
• “The retail market began to show small signs of recovery as consumer confidence improved, with branded sales outperforming own label for the first time in 2 years.”
• “Total Water with retail sales surpassing £1.8 billion, representing a 10.7% increase compared to 2023.”
• “A new rail siding has now been fully operational for two years enabling the group to move goods in a more environmentally sustainable way removing 8,000 HGV movements from the roads each year, and reducing its carbon footprint by over 3,000 tonnes.”
• “Highland Spring entered into a new two-year sponsorship partnership with the Scottish Rugby Union, becoming the hydration partner of Scottish Rugby.”
• “Highland Spring brought a significant product launch to market with a new range of still flavoured waters. The business invested to create in-house production capability for the new product range, and in a controlled launch, focused on driving awareness and trial, which generated more than £3m of retail sales in its first 9 months.”
• “The business made an underlying operating profit (operating profit from operations after adding back non trading costs) of £14,186k.”
• “Flavoured Water sales were up £34m (+9.2%) to £406m, seeing growth for the first time after several years of declining volumes and shopper numbers. Highland Spring's launch into Flavoured Waters contributed to overall category growth.”
• “Highland Spring had its highest year of sales in 2024, with UK retail sales up £26m to exceed £200m, +14.7% vs 2023.”
• “Highland Spring group is fully committed to a decarbonisation roadmap for our business, delivering projects and initiatives in collaboration with customers and partners which reduce emissions across our entire operations.”
• “All our electricity is supplied from 100% renewable sources and all sites are zero to landfill.”
• “The business continues to progress the development of a dedicated 7-megawatt, 15-acre solar farm with construction due to start in Summer 2025 and an ambition to be fully operational in early 2026.”
• “In 2024, we launched a new range of flavoured still water which offers a healthier way to hydrate and enables us to capitalise on the 400 million litres flavoured water category. To facilitate this launch an approx. £10 million investment has been made at our main site in Blackford.”
• “The group also continues to progress projects which reduce the amount of packing we use through lightweighting and increasing the amount of recycled PET in our bottles as the quality and quantity becomes available.”
• “In recent years, we have reduced the weight of our large PET plastic bottles by over 10% and we have designed a new bottle to further reduce the weight of our larger PET plastic bottles, which will roll out in 2025.”
• “We are long term supporters of the introduction of an efficient and effective DRS in the UK which will improve the collection and recycling of drinks packaging into new bottles and cans.”
• “In 2024 we launched the project into two more local authorities - Blackpool and Haringey enabling 250,000 cans and bottles to be recycled rather than ending up in landfill.”
• “We continue to achieve annual organic accreditation from The Soil Association for our catchment area, which we have held for over 24 years, demonstrating our commitment to responsible land and water stewardship.”
• “In 2024, we donated 25,000 bottles of water to Social Bite coffee shops to help people experiencing homelessness & food poverty in Scotland and are also funding the development of a new homeless Recovery Village in Dundee.”
• “At the end of 2024, we were awarded Good Shopping Guide Ethical Certification for the seventeeth year running receiving a top ranking of 100 across all criteria measured in recognition of our responsible approach to doing business.”

Auditor, going-concern and subsidiary information is drawn from the narrative of the latest annual accounts. About these numbers

Filings

4

last 12 months

Capital events

0

last 24 months

Officers appointed

0

last 12 months

Officers resigned

1

last 12 months

Direct counts from the register. No score, no rating — see the Filing timeline for the underlying events.

• Turnover

  +13.5%

  £130,634,000 → £148,240,000

• Cash

  -67.3%

  £407,000 → £133,000

• Net assets

  +59.5%

  £8,988,000 → £14,339,000

• Employees

  +2.4%

  413 → 423

• Operating profit

  +116.7%

  £6,523,000 → £14,135,000

• Profit before tax

  +754.4%

  £888,000 → £7,587,000

• Wages

  +22.7%

  £16,707,000 → £20,502,000

Each % is (latest − prior) ÷ |prior| for the line item as filed. The comparison is only shown when the latest and prior accounts cover broadly equal-length periods — short or long stubs (typical around incorporation or a year-end change) are suppressed rather than misrepresented. Lines a company doesn't report are omitted. About these numbers