Sell Your Manufacturing Business in 2026: Buyer Demand, Multiples, and the 76+ Active PE Buyer Pool

If you own a U.S. manufacturing business doing $1-50M in revenue, you are sitting in front of the deepest buyer pool in a generation. Reshoring tailwinds, federal infrastructure spending (CHIPS Act, IRA, IIJA), aging-owner succession, and record PE dry powder have converged into a buy-side environment most owners under-appreciate. The question is no longer whether buyers exist. The question is which of the 76+ active lower middle market buyers actually fits your sub-vertical, your size, and your customer profile.

We work directly with 76+ active U.S. lower middle market buyers, including 38 manufacturing-focused capital partners. That list includes named PE platforms like Audax Industrial Partners, GenNx360 Capital Partners, Trive Capital, Industrial Growth Partners, Sterling Group, Wynnchurch Capital, Cortec Group, KKR Industrials, Mason Wells, and Arsenal Capital, plus aerospace specialists (AE Industrial Partners, Liberty Hall Capital, Arlington Capital), medical device specialists (Linden Capital Partners, Patient Square Capital, LaSalle Capital), family offices with patient industrial mandates, and public consolidators on the strategic side. The buyers pay us when a deal closes — not you.

This guide is the canonical hub for selling a U.S. manufacturing business in 2026. It covers buyer demand, realistic multiples by size and sub-vertical, the five active buyer archetypes, named PE platforms with verifiable activity, the typical sale process and timeline, the drivers of premium multiples, the deal-killers that re-price LOIs in diligence, and how a buy-side partner is structurally different from a sell-side broker. If you want a starting-point valuation range now, our free valuation calculator takes about three minutes. If you want a real conversation about what buyers would actually pay, the call below is free and there’s no contract.

“The owners getting 8-9x in 2026 aren’t the ones with the biggest businesses — they’re the ones with the cleanest certifications, lowest customer concentration, and a buy-side partner who knew which of the 76+ buyers actually wrote checks for their sub-vertical last quarter.”

Key Takeaways

• 76+ active U.S. lower middle market buyers, including 38 manufacturing-focused capital partners, are deploying capital in 2026.
• Manufacturing multiples by EBITDA size: $1-3M = 4-6x; $3-7M = 5-7.5x; $7-15M = 6-9x; $15M+ = 7-10x for platform-quality assets.
• Sub-vertical premium: aerospace 7-10x, medical device 8-12x, precision machining 5-8x, metal fabrication 4-6x, contract manufacturing 5-7x, industrial supply 6-9x.
• Five active buyer archetypes: PE platform, PE add-on, strategic / public consolidator, family office, search funder. Each underwrites differently.
• Sale process timeline: 9-12 months from prep complete to close for $3M+ EBITDA businesses. Add 12-24 months on the front for proper preparation.
• Customer concentration above 25% is the single biggest re-trade driver in manufacturing diligence — mitigate it 12-18 months before going to market.

Why manufacturing M&A is in a structural bull market in 2026

Three secular tailwinds have converged on U.S. manufacturing simultaneously. First, reshoring — supply-chain pain from 2020-2023 made domestic manufacturing strategically valuable in a way it hadn’t been since the 1980s. Second, federal infrastructure spending: the CHIPS and Science Act (~$280B), Inflation Reduction Act (~$370B clean-energy provisions), and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (~$1.2T) are flowing through industrial supply chains over a 5-10 year window. Third, demographics: roughly 60% of U.S. manufacturing business owners are over 55, and a generational ownership transfer is in progress.

On the capital side, PE dry powder for industrial deals is at record levels. PitchBook and Preqin data both show committed-but-undeployed capital at multi-year highs across U.S. lower middle market industrial funds. That capital has to be deployed within fund-life windows (typically 5-7 years from final close), which forces active sourcing. The result is the most aggressive buyer-side environment for U.S. manufacturing businesses since the 2014-2015 cycle.

What this means for an owner of a $2-30M EBITDA manufacturing business in 2026. You have leverage. The buyer pool is wider than at any point in the last decade. Multiples for clean assets have held or expanded even through interest-rate normalization. The question is no longer ‘can I find a buyer’ — it’s ‘which of the 76+ active buyers actually fits my business, and how do I run a process that gets them competing rather than coordinating?’

What manufacturing businesses are worth in 2026: multiples by size and sub-vertical

Multiples in U.S. manufacturing M&A are driven by three variables in roughly this order: EBITDA size, sub-vertical, and quality-of-earnings characteristics. Size matters most because it determines which buyer pool is available to you. Sub-vertical matters next because aerospace, medical device, and specialty niches command structural premiums over commodity job-shops. Quality characteristics — recurring revenue, customer concentration, certifications, margin profile — can move you 1-2 turns up or down within a sub-vertical band.

Generic manufacturing multiples by EBITDA size in 2026: $500K-$1M EBITDA: 3.5-5x — below the LMM PE floor, search funder / SBA buyer territory. $1-3M EBITDA: 4-6x — LMM PE add-on territory, lighter platform interest. $3-7M EBITDA: 5-7.5x — deep LMM PE platform territory, 76+ buyers active. $7-15M EBITDA: 6-9x — mid-market PE, family offices, strategic consolidators all bid. $15M+ EBITDA: 7-10x+ — full mid-market PE process with strategic premiums available.

Sub-vertical premium / discount adjustments in 2026: Aerospace manufacturing (AS9100 + Tier-1 OEM customers): +1.5 to +2.5 turns vs generic. Medical device (ISO 13485, FDA-registered, 510(k) cleared products): +2 to +3.5 turns vs generic. Precision machining with 5-axis capability + AS9100D: +0.5 to +1.5 turns. Contract manufacturing with diversified customers: at par to +0.5. Metal fabrication / commodity job-shops: -0.5 to -1.5 turns. Industrial supply / distribution: 0.5-1.5x revenue or 6-9x EBITDA depending on consolidator interest.

Quality-of-earnings adjustments within a sub-vertical band: Recurring aftermarket / parts revenue 25%+: +0.5-1x. Top customer <15% of revenue: +0.5x. Top customer >30%: -0.5 to -1.5x (often pushed into earnout structure). EBITDA margin >25%: +0.5x. Owner-as-key-person (no second-tier management): -0.5 to -1x. Pending environmental, safety, or labor exposure: -0.5 to -2x or deal-killing.

EBITDA size tier	Generic multiple	Aerospace	Medical device	Precision machining	Metal fabrication
$1-3M	4-6x	6-8x	7-9x	5-6.5x	4-5x
$3-7M	5-7.5x	7-9x	8-10x	5.5-7x	4.5-5.5x
$7-15M	6-9x	8-10x	9-12x	6.5-8x	5-6.5x
$15M+	7-10x	9-12x	10-14x	7-9x	5.5-7x

The 5 active buyer archetypes for U.S. manufacturing businesses

The buyer pool for U.S. manufacturing in 2026 divides into five archetypes. Each underwrites differently, structures deals differently, and pays for different things. Knowing which archetype fits your business is the single highest-leverage positioning decision in the entire process. Mismatched marketing — running a $2M EBITDA precision machine shop as if Audax Industrial would platform it — wastes 6-9 months and signals naivety to the buyers who actually would bid.

Archetype 1: Manufacturing-focused PE platform. Dedicated industrial funds with $300M-$5B+ AUM looking for platform investments at $5-25M EBITDA. Named examples: Audax Industrial Partners, GenNx360 Capital Partners, Trive Capital, Industrial Growth Partners, Sterling Group, Wynnchurch Capital, Mason Wells, KKR Industrials, Arsenal Capital, Cortec Group. Multiples: 6-10x EBITDA. Process: full QoE, environmental, legal — 6-9 month diligence. Best fit: $5M+ EBITDA, sub-vertical leadership, scalable.

Archetype 2: PE add-on / tuck-in. Existing PE-backed platforms acquiring smaller bolt-ons. Same named PE firms, but now operating through portfolio companies. Multiples: 5-8x EBITDA, often with rollover equity or earnout structures. Faster close (60-120 days) when financing is in place at the platform level. Best fit: $1-7M EBITDA businesses with clear strategic fit (geography, capability, customer access) to an existing platform.

Archetype 3: Strategic / public consolidator. Operating companies acquiring for synergies, capability acquisition, or capacity. Public examples relevant to manufacturing: Watsco (NYSE: WSO) in HVAC distribution, APi Group (NYSE: APG) in specialty contracting, Comfort Systems USA (NYSE: FIX) in industrial mechanical, Roper Technologies (NYSE: ROP) in niche industrial software/instrumentation, HEICO (NYSE: HEI) in aerospace aftermarket, Atkore (NYSE: ATKR) in electrical infrastructure, Grainger (NYSE: GWW), Fastenal (NYSE: FAST), and MSC Industrial (NYSE: MSM) in industrial distribution. Multiples: 6-12x EBITDA when synergies are real. Best fit: businesses with clear strategic value to a named acquirer.

Archetype 4: Family office with industrial mandate. Single-family or multi-family offices investing patient capital with longer hold horizons (10-25+ years vs PE’s 3-7). Multiples: 5-8x EBITDA, often with rollover equity and continued seller involvement. Process: less rigorous than institutional PE, more relationship-driven. Best fit: owners who want partial liquidity but continued ownership, or who care about legacy / employee retention more than peak multiple.

Archetype 5: Search funder (sub-$2M EBITDA only). Individual MBA-trained operators raising $400K-$700K of search capital from 10-20 investors, then acquiring and running one business. Target: $750K-$2.5M EBITDA. Multiples: 4-6x EBITDA. Process: typically faster than PE (60-120 days) but smaller buyer pool per deal. Best fit: lower end of the LMM where PE platforms won’t engage but the business has scalability and a transferable role.

Buyer type	Cash at close	Rollover equity	Exclusivity	Best fit for
Strategic acquirer	High (40–60%+)	Low (0–10%)	60–90 days	Sellers who want a clean exit; competitor or upstream consolidator
PE platform	Medium (60–80%)	Medium (15–25%)	60–120 days	Sellers willing to hold rollover for the second sale; bigger deals
PE add-on	Higher (70–85%)	Low–Medium (10–20%)	45–90 days	Sellers folding into existing platform; faster process
Search fund / ETA	Medium (50–70%)	High (20–40%)	90–180 days	Legacy-conscious sellers wanting an owner-operator successor
Independent sponsor	Medium (55–75%)	Medium (15–30%)	60–120 days	Sellers OK with deal-by-deal capital and longer financing closes

Named PE platforms acquiring manufacturing businesses in 2026

Generalist industrial PE platforms with verifiable manufacturing activity in 2025-2026. Audax Industrial Partners — deep LMM industrial focus, frequent precision manufacturing and engineered components platforms. GenNx360 Capital Partners — industrial services and manufacturing roll-ups, $5-50M EBITDA. Trive Capital — industrial / aerospace specialist, $5-30M EBITDA. Industrial Growth Partners (IGP) — engineered industrial products, niche manufacturing, $5-35M EBITDA. Sterling Group — basic industrial, building products, distribution. Wynnchurch Capital — middle-market industrial including manufacturing platforms. Mason Wells — engineered products, packaging, niche industrial. Cortec Group — industrial distribution and consumer-adjacent manufacturing. KKR Industrials — large-cap industrial with platform / add-on strategy. Arsenal Capital Partners — specialty industrial including chemicals and materials.

Aerospace-specialist PE platforms. AE Industrial Partners (Boca Raton, FL) — pure-play aerospace, defense, and industrial services specialist with multiple platform investments in aerospace components and aftermarket services. Liberty Hall Capital Partners — dedicated aerospace and defense fund, multiple Tier-2 / Tier-3 supplier platforms. Arlington Capital Partners — aerospace, defense, government services with active LMM platform program.

Medical device-specialist PE platforms. Linden Capital Partners (Chicago) — healthcare and medical products specialist with multiple medical device manufacturer platforms. Patient Square Capital — healthcare-focused with med-device manufacturing exposure. LaSalle Capital — LMM healthcare and medical products specialist.

Public strategic consolidators with active acquisition programs. Watsco (NYSE: WSO) — HVAC distribution roll-up, 100+ acquisitions historically. APi Group (NYSE: APG) — specialty contracting and life-safety services. Comfort Systems USA (NYSE: FIX) — industrial mechanical contracting, active acquirer. Roper Technologies (NYSE: ROP) — niche industrial / instrumentation. HEICO (NYSE: HEI) — aerospace aftermarket parts manufacturer. Atkore (NYSE: ATKR) — electrical infrastructure. Grainger (NYSE: GWW), Fastenal (NYSE: FAST), MSC Industrial (NYSE: MSM) — industrial distribution consolidators.

Business size	SBA buyer	Search funder	Family office	LMM PE	Strategic
Under $250K SDE	Yes	No	No	No	Rare
$250K-$750K SDE	Yes	Some	No	No	Add-on
$750K-$1.5M SDE	Some	Yes	Some	Add-on	Yes
$1.5M-$3M EBITDA	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
$3M-$10M EBITDA	No	Some	Yes	Yes	Yes
$10M+ EBITDA	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

The typical manufacturing M&A sale process and timeline

A complete sell-side process for a $3M+ EBITDA manufacturing business runs 9-12 months from prep-complete to close. Add 12-24 months on the front for proper preparation if the books, customer contracts, certifications, and management team aren’t already buyer-ready. The structured timeline below assumes a competitive process with 8-15 buyers in the initial outreach narrowing to 3-5 management meetings.

Months 1-2: positioning, CIM build, buyer list development. Build a 40-60 page Confidential Information Memorandum covering business overview, financial summary, customer profile, sub-vertical positioning, growth thesis, and risk factors. Develop a target buyer list of 30-80 prospects across the five archetypes (typically 50-60% PE platforms / add-ons, 20-30% strategics, 10-20% family offices). Sign NDAs. Distribute teaser, then CIM to qualified prospects.

Months 2-4: management meetings and indications of interest (IOIs). 8-15 buyers move into management presentations — typically a half-day on-site visit with operations walkthrough, financial deep-dive, and Q&A. Receive 3-8 IOIs with non-binding price ranges. Negotiate to 2-3 buyers for confirmatory diligence and final LOI bidding.

Months 4-8: LOI, exclusivity, and confirmatory diligence. Sign LOI with the winning bidder. 60-90 day exclusivity. Buyer engages QoE provider ($75-150K), environmental consultant, legal counsel, and operations / technical advisors. Buyer’s technical team validates certifications (AS9100, ISO 13485, NADCAP, etc.). Customer reference calls (carefully managed). Working capital target negotiated. Indemnification, reps and warranties, escrow, and earnout terms negotiated.

Months 8-12: signing and close. Definitive purchase agreement signed. Regulatory clearances (HSR if over threshold, ITAR transfer for defense businesses, FDA notification for medical devices). Final working capital adjustment. Employee notification (typically 24-72 hours pre-close). Customer notification per contractual requirements. Closing — wire transfer, escrow funding, transition services agreement effective.

Common timeline disruptors to plan around. QoE surfaces add-back disputes (3-6 week delay typical). Environmental Phase II findings (4-12 week delay if remediation needed). Customer concentration discovered above what was disclosed (deal re-trade or earnout restructuring). Working capital target dispute (1-3 week delay). Lender slippage on debt commitment (2-6 weeks). Lease assignment denial. Regulatory clearance delay (HSR Second Request can add 3-6 months on larger deals).

What drives premium multiples in manufacturing M&A

Six characteristics drive the difference between a 5x deal and a 9x deal in U.S. manufacturing. These aren’t aesthetic preferences — they’re structural drivers of buyer underwriting. PE platforms model future cash flows, and each of these characteristics either de-risks the model (reducing required return) or extends the growth runway (increasing the model’s terminal value).

Driver 1: recurring revenue and aftermarket parts. Aftermarket parts, consumables, service / repair contracts, and replacement-cycle revenue command structural premiums because they’re predictable and high-margin. A manufacturer with 30% aftermarket revenue trades at 1-2 turns higher than a pure project-based equivalent. HEICO, Roper, and Watsco are all built around this thesis.

Driver 2: certifications and qualifications. AS9100 (aerospace), ISO 13485 (medical device), NADCAP (special processes), ITAR registration, FDA 21 CFR 820 compliance, ISO 9001 baseline, AS9102 first-article inspection capability. Certifications represent multi-year build-up costs and customer-qualification moats. A 510(k)-cleared product family adds 1-3 turns in medical device M&A.

Driver 3: customer concentration profile. Top customer below 15% of revenue: premium territory. Top customer 15-25%: at par. Top customer 25-40%: deal-killing concentration risk for many PE buyers, often pushed into earnout structures. Top customer above 40%: most PE platforms walk; the few who stay structure the deal so the seller bears the customer-loss risk via earnout or holdback.

Driver 4: management team depth. A second-tier management team (operations VP, sales VP, finance VP) that survives the owner’s departure justifies a higher multiple because the buyer doesn’t have to insert their own operating team day-one. PE platforms specifically pay for this. Owner-operator businesses without a second-tier team face a 0.5-1x multiple discount or a long earnout structure.

Driver 5: margin profile and capital intensity. EBITDA margins above 20% are PE-attractive; above 25% are premium. Capital intensity matters because high-capex businesses have lower free-cash-flow conversion. A precision machining business with 22% EBITDA but 10% maintenance capex converts to 12% FCF and trades like a 12% margin business at the multiple level.

Driver 6: end-market exposure. Aerospace, defense, medical device, semiconductor, and infrastructure end-markets command structural premiums because of secular growth tailwinds. Auto OEM, residential construction, and consumer-discretionary end-markets discount for cyclicality. End-market mix should be a deliberate part of your positioning narrative.

Common deal-killers in manufacturing M&A diligence

Five issues kill or re-trade more manufacturing LOIs than any others. Each is preventable with 12-18 months of pre-process preparation. Each is also discovered late in diligence by 90% of unprepared sellers, often after 4-6 months of process and $200K+ of accumulated transaction costs. The economic asymmetry of fixing them in advance is enormous.

Deal-killer 1: customer concentration above 30%. If your top customer is 30%+ of revenue and you haven’t taken active steps to diversify, expect a 0.5-1.5x multiple cut, an earnout structure tied to customer retention, or buyer walk. The 12-18 month fix: aggressive new-customer acquisition, intentional renegotiation of the concentrated customer’s commercial terms, formalization of the customer relationship into multi-year contracts with assignment provisions.

Deal-killer 2: environmental exposure surfaced in Phase II. Manufacturing facilities — especially with metal-finishing, plating, painting, machining-coolant, or solvent operations — have environmental risk. A Phase II environmental site assessment that finds soil or groundwater contamination triggers indemnification negotiations or buyer walk. The fix: get a Phase I done at your own initiative 12+ months before market, address findings before buyers see them.

Deal-killer 3: aggressive add-backs that don’t survive QoE. Owner’s personal expenses, family-member compensation without economic substance, one-time expenses that recur, ‘normalized’ working capital that’s actually one-time inventory liquidation. QoE providers will systematically challenge each. Add-backs that get rejected re-price the deal — on a 6x multiple, $500K of rejected add-backs cuts $3M off the purchase price. The fix: have your accountant quantify add-backs conservatively and document each line.

Deal-killer 4: certification or compliance gaps. Lapsed AS9100 audit. ISO 13485 nonconformance findings. Open FDA 483 observations. ITAR registration not current. OSHA citations not closed out. Open EPA notices of violation. PFAS-related disclosures pending. Each of these can derail an LOI. The fix: pre-process compliance audit by external counsel 12+ months ahead.

Deal-killer 5: owner-as-key-person risk. Customers who only buy because of the owner’s personal relationship. Technical know-how that lives only in the owner’s head. Vendor terms based on personal trust. The buyer sees this in customer reference calls and in the customer-concentration / churn data. The fix: structured 12-18 month transition where customer relationships, technical knowledge, and vendor relationships move to a second-tier team.

How CT Acquisitions works: a buy-side partner, not a sell-side broker

Most M&A advisors are sell-side brokers. They sign you to a 12-month exclusive engagement, charge a monthly retainer ($10-25K is common in LMM), run a competitive auction process across 6-12 months, and collect a success fee (typically 5-10% of deal value, often $300K-$1M+ on a $5-15M deal). The economics are heavily front-loaded for the broker: you pay regardless of outcome, and the ‘tail’ clauses can capture fees on deals that close 12-24 months after the engagement ends.

We work the other side of the table. We’re a buy-side partner working with 76+ active U.S. lower middle market buyers, including 38 manufacturing-focused capital partners. The buyers pay us when a deal closes, not you. No retainer. No exclusivity. No 12-month contract. No tail fee. You can walk after the discovery call with zero hooks.

Why this works for owners with manufacturing businesses. We already know which of the 76+ buyers is currently writing checks for your sub-vertical and size. We can introduce you to 3-5 buyers with active mandates that fit your business in days, not months. We move faster (60-120 days from intro to LOI) because we’re not running an auction to find buyers — we already know them. And the cost-of-trying is zero, so the conversation is downside-protected.

When a sell-side broker is the better fit. We’re honest about this. If your business is $25M+ EBITDA, has multiple plausible strategic buyers across different industries, and you want a maximally competitive auction process where a 0.5-turn multiple uplift is worth $5M+ in additional proceeds, a top-tier sell-side investment bank may justify the fees. For LMM manufacturing businesses ($1-25M EBITDA), the buy-side path is almost always the better economic outcome.

Conclusion

Selling a U.S. manufacturing business in 2026 is the most favorable buyer-side environment in a generation. 76+ active lower middle market buyers, 38 of them manufacturing-focused. Reshoring tailwinds, federal infrastructure spending, and aging-owner succession converging on the supply side. Multiples by size: $1-3M = 4-6x, $3-7M = 5-7.5x, $7-15M = 6-9x, $15M+ = 7-10x for clean assets. Sub-vertical premiums for aerospace, medical device, and specialty niches. The owners who get the best outcomes are the ones who position to the right buyer archetype, prepare 12-24 months ahead, eliminate the predictable deal-killers (customer concentration, environmental, aggressive add-backs, certification gaps, owner-as-key-person), and work with someone who knows the buyers personally rather than running an auction to find them. If you want to talk to a buy-side partner who already knows the 76+ buyers and the 38 manufacturing-focused ones specifically, we’re a buy-side partner — the buyers pay us, not you, no contract required.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is my manufacturing business worth in 2026?

Generic ranges by EBITDA: $1-3M = 4-6x; $3-7M = 5-7.5x; $7-15M = 6-9x; $15M+ = 7-10x for platform-quality assets. Sub-vertical adjustments: aerospace +1.5-2.5 turns, medical device +2-3.5 turns, precision machining +0.5-1.5 turns, metal fabrication -0.5-1.5 turns. Quality drivers (recurring revenue, low customer concentration, certifications, second-tier management) move you within the band.

Who actually buys manufacturing businesses in 2026?

Five archetypes: PE platforms (Audax Industrial, GenNx360, Trive Capital, Industrial Growth Partners, Sterling Group, Wynnchurch, Mason Wells, KKR Industrials, Arsenal, Cortec), PE add-ons (existing platforms tucking in), strategics / public consolidators (Watsco WSO, APi Group APG, Comfort Systems FIX, Roper ROP, HEICO HEI, Atkore ATKR, Grainger GWW, Fastenal FAST), family offices with industrial mandates, and search funders for sub-$2M EBITDA.

How long does it take to sell a manufacturing business?

9-12 months from prep-complete to close for a $3M+ EBITDA business. Add 12-24 months for proper preparation if books, customer contracts, certifications, and management depth aren’t already buyer-ready. Sub-$3M EBITDA deals can run 6-9 months in compressed timelines.

What kills manufacturing M&A deals in diligence?

Five top deal-killers: customer concentration above 30%; environmental exposure surfaced in Phase II site assessment; aggressive add-backs that don’t survive Quality of Earnings; certification or compliance gaps (AS9100, ISO 13485, FDA 483s, ITAR, OSHA, EPA); and owner-as-key-person risk where customers / vendors / technical know-how only live with the owner.

Should I run an auction or do targeted outreach?

For $25M+ EBITDA businesses with multiple strategic buyer pools, a competitive sell-side auction can justify the fees. For $1-25M EBITDA LMM manufacturing businesses, targeted outreach to the right 3-5 buyers via a buy-side partner who already knows them tends to deliver better economics: faster close, lower fees, equal or better multiple.

Do I need certifications like AS9100 or ISO 13485 to get top multiples?

If you’re selling into aerospace, AS9100 is effectively required for top multiples and Tier-1 OEM customer access. NADCAP for special processes. For medical device, ISO 13485 + FDA 21 CFR 820 compliance is required. For general industrial, ISO 9001 is a baseline expectation. Certifications represent 1-3 turns of multiple in the relevant sub-verticals.

How is CT Acquisitions different from a sell-side broker or M&A advisor?

We’re a buy-side partner, not a sell-side broker. Sell-side brokers represent you and charge you 8-12% of the deal (often $300K-$1M+) plus monthly retainers, run a 9-12 month auction process, and require 12-month exclusivity. We work directly with 76+ buyers including 38 manufacturing-focused capital partners who pay us when a deal closes. You pay nothing. No retainer, no exclusivity, no contract. We move faster (60-120 days from intro to LOI) because we already know who the right buyer is rather than running an auction to find one.

Sources & References

All claims and figures in this analysis are sourced from the publicly available references below.

1. U.S. Small Business Administration — Buying & Selling a Business
2. National Association of Manufacturers — State of Manufacturing
3. AMT — Association For Manufacturing Technology
4. Audax Group — Industrial Investments Portfolio
5. GenNx360 Capital Partners — Industrial Investment Strategy
6. Industrial Growth Partners — Portfolio Companies
7. Watsco Inc. (NYSE: WSO) — Acquisition History (10-K)
8. PitchBook — U.S. PE Middle Market Report