Guide · Sales and marketing
How to use Companies House to find business leads (UK)
Companies House holds every limited company in the UK, and its advanced search is free. With a few filters you can pull a list of active firms in one trade and one area, see who runs them, and turn that into a prospect list you can actually use. Here is how to do it step by step, and how to stay on the right side of the email rules.
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Step 1: open the advanced search
Go to the Companies House advanced company search. You do not need an account. This is where the useful filters are; the normal search box only looks up names.
Step 2: set your filters
- Company status: choose Active so you skip dissolved and liquidated firms.
- Nature of business (SIC code): type the trade, for example 56302 public houses and bars, 56101 licensed restaurants, 96020 hairdressing and beauty, or 43210 electrical installation.
- Registered office location: enter a town or postcode area. Remember this is the registered address, which is sometimes an accountant’s office rather than where the business trades.
- Incorporation date: use it to find new companies (often buying for the first time) or established ones (bigger budgets).
- Company type: pick private limited and LLP if you plan to email them.
Step 3: download and tidy the results
Download the results as a spreadsheet, then remove duplicates, drop dormant or holding companies, and keep the columns you need: company name, number, town, SIC code and incorporation date. Our guides on removing duplicates and cleaning up a messy spreadsheet cover the tidying.
Step 4: find the decision-maker
Open a company and click the People tab to see its current directors. In a small business the director is usually the person who decides. Check the filing history too: recent accounts and a confirmation statement filed on time are good signs the company is alive and well run.
Step 5: add contact details the right way
- Visit the company’s own website and note the business email address and phone number it publishes, plus the page where you found them.
- Prefer role addresses (hello@, info@, sales@) or a named business address the company has made public.
- Skip personal free-mail addresses such as Gmail or Hotmail. They usually mean a sole trader, and you should not cold email those without consent.
- Record the date you checked each row, so you can show where the data came from.
Step 6: stay inside PECR and UK GDPR
- Email limited companies and LLPs at business addresses only.
- Say who you are and where you are based, and include a one-line way to opt out.
- Keep a suppression list and never email anyone who has said no.
- Before calling, check numbers against the Telephone Preference Service and Corporate TPS.
- Keep the list to what you need and delete it when you are done.
The ICO’s direct marketing guidance is the official reference.
Mistakes to avoid
- Treating the registered office as the trading address and posting letters to an accountant.
- Leaving dissolved or overdue companies in the list.
- Guessing email addresses (firstname@company) instead of using ones the business published. Guessed addresses bounce and harm your sender reputation.
- Sending the same message to every trade. Write one short email per sector.
Related guide: how to build a B2B lead list in the UK.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Companies House data free to use for sales prospecting?
- Yes. The register is public and free to search, and you can use it to find companies and their directors. What you do with the data still has to follow UK GDPR and PECR, especially once you add names and contact details and start contacting people.
- What is a SIC code?
- A Standard Industrial Classification code is a five-digit number each company picks to describe what it does, for example 56302 for public houses and bars or 43210 for electrical installation. Searching by SIC code is the fastest way to pull every company in one trade.
- Can I send cold emails to companies I find on Companies House?
- Under PECR you can send marketing emails to limited companies and LLPs at their business addresses without prior consent, as long as you say who you are and give a simple way to opt out. Sole traders and ordinary partnerships are treated like individuals and need consent first. Always honour opt-outs straight away.
- Does Companies House give email addresses or phone numbers?
- No. It gives the company name, number, registered office, status, SIC codes, filing history and officers. You add contact details from the company’s own website or other public business sources.
- How do I know a company is still trading?
- Filter for an Active status, then check the filing history for recent accounts and confirmation statements. A company with overdue accounts or a proposal to strike off is a poor lead.
Want it done for you?
Tell us the trade, the area and the size of business you want, and we build the list for you: active limited companies checked on Companies House, with company name, number, website, published business email and phone, and the source page for each row. 100 leads for £30, or 300 for £75, sent as a CSV or Excel file by email. You pay by a one-off Stripe link.