Finding business name from trading name

Subtle

As per the title, how does one find out a business's registered company name from just their trading name? Is it a case of finding out who the director is and searching CRO for this?

Graham

If a company/individual is trading under another name, that other business name should also be registered with the CRO.

The CRO website allows you to search by Company, Business Name, or both.

Subtle

Graham wrote: »

If a company/individual is trading under another name, that other business name should also be registered with the CRO.

The CRO website allows you to search by Company, Business Name, or both.

Thanks - seems like the company in question is ex-directory then... (aka illegal!)

duploelabs

If they've a website, try searching who owns the domain at whois

Subtle

duploelabs wrote: »

If they've a website, try searching who owns the domain at whois

Their website is no longer around. But it looks pretty clear that the company was dissolved but the directors are simply continuing to operate! Apparently it's not that uncommon and there's poor policing here of things compared to the UK.

Skiba1

Seems to be a long spat..

mneylon

The CRO data can help, but if you hit a brick wall there are a few other services like https://www.vision-net.ie/ that can help you navigate the data more easily. So you could, for example, find out how many other companies or businesses a particular person is a director of

pedroeibar1

Subtle wrote: »

Their website is no longer around. But it looks pretty clear that the company was dissolved but the directors are simply continuing to operate! Apparently it's not that uncommon and there's poor policing here of things compared to the UK.

Your language is somewhat confusing (company/Business/trading name). Nor is there such an entity as an ‘ex-directory company’.

There is nothing wrong with a company being dissolved. The shareholders of a company could decide to close it down and once that is done correctly there is nothing to prevent them from continuing the same business activity as sole traders. Nor is it illegal. EG if the original business was Smith and Bloggs Ltd., it could be closed and its business name, website etc., transferred to former shareholders Joe Smith and Bill Bloggs. They then could operate as ‘Joe Smith and Bill Bloggs trading as Smith and Bloggs’. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, it happens regularly. (But they cannot use 'Ltd.' in the title.)

Blacknight’s suggestion to use Vision net is valid for director search, but you need to understand what questions to ask to get the correct answers.

Subtle

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

There is nothing wrong with a company being dissolved. The shareholders of a company could decide to close it down and once that is done correctly there is nothing to prevent them from continuing the same business activity as sole traders. Nor is it illegal. EG if the original business was Smith and Bloggs Ltd., it could be closed and its business name, website etc., transferred to former shareholders Joe Smith and Bill Bloggs. They then could operate as ‘Joe Smith and Bill Bloggs trading as Smith and Bloggs’. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, it happens regularly. (But they cannot use 'Ltd.' in the title.).

This seems to be the case maybe - the business name is still registered so maybe this has been transferred.