Companies House Lead Generation: How to Do It

Companies House holds records on over 5 million active UK companies. Every formation, director appointment, and registered address is public data. Here's how to use it for lead generation.

What Data Is Available

Everything filed at Companies House is public. The useful fields for leads:

• Company name and number
• Incorporation date
• SIC codes (up to 4 industry codes per company)
• Registered office address
• Director names, month/year of birth, nationality
• Persons of significant control (shareholders with 25%+ ownership)

Not available: phone numbers, email addresses, revenue, or employee counts.

Step 1: Pick Your SIC Codes

SIC codes are 5-digit numbers categorising what a company does. There are ~730 codes. Examples:

• 62012 -- Software development
• 70229 -- Management consultancy
• 56101 -- Licensed restaurants
• 43220 -- Plumbing and heating

Build a list of all codes relevant to your market. A marketing agency might register under 73110 (advertising), 70229 (management consultancy), or 62090 (IT consultancy). Don't rely on just one code.

Step 2: Filter by Location

Combine SIC codes with postcode or radius filtering to get a local list. If you sell commercial kitchen equipment within 30 miles of Birmingham, you want SIC 56101 + 56102 in that radius. That gives you 25-35 restaurants per month instead of 400 nationally.

Step 3: Use Director Names

Every company must have at least one director. Their name is public record. "Dear James" gets opened. "Dear Director" gets binned. Personalised direct mail converts 2-3x better than generic mail.

Step 4: Filter Out Virtual Offices

About 20% of new companies use a virtual office address. In London it's 40%+. Your letter goes to a mailroom, not the director. Filtering these out saves postage and improves response rates.

Three Ways to Get the Data

DIY (free, needs a developer): Use the Companies House streaming API. Subscribe to new incorporation events, filter by SIC code, pipe into your CRM. Requires ongoing maintenance.

Bulk download (free, needs scripting): Download the monthly snapshot, diff against last month, extract new incorporations.

Paid platform (easiest): newlyregisteredcompanies.co.uk processes everything for you. Daily updates, SIC/postcode/radius filters, director names, virtual office detection, CSV export. credit packs from £9.

For most B2B teams, a paid platform saves 5-10 hours per week versus DIY.

Realistic Response Rates

Cold outreach to newly formed companies converts at 2-5% for direct mail when you contact them within 2 weeks of formation and your offer matches their SIC code. After 2 weeks, those numbers roughly halve.

FAQ

Is it legal to use Companies House data for marketing? Yes. It's published under the Open Government Licence. For B2B outreach, legitimate interest under UK GDPR typically applies, but you must offer an opt-out.

How do I find the right SIC codes? Search the ONS SIC code lookup tool or use the searchable picker on newlyregisteredcompanies.co.uk.

Can I get email addresses from Companies House? No. Companies House doesn't collect or publish email addresses.