01
Strategic acquirers
Adjacent manufacturers expanding capability or geography.
Sector · Light Industrial · Texas
Texas light-industrial and manufacturing businesses sit at the intersection of EBITDA-driven valuation, SBA-eligibility, and physical-asset complexity — real property, equipment, supplier contracts, inventory. Legacy works the pre-market staging that makes those assets transparent to a strategic buyer or PE search fund.
what the numbers actually look like.
3–5x
$5M
8–14%
60–120 d
who's actually writing offers.
02
PE search funds
ETA buyers — SBA-stacked, looking for $1-5M EBITDA assets.
03
Regional operators
Texas-based operating groups with capital and supply-chain leverage.
what kills these deals — and what works.
Texas manufacturing transactions hinge on three things: EBITDA normalization (especially around owner compensation, family-employee comp, and discretionary spend), customer concentration risk, and the asset/real-property split. A clean separation of operating EBITDA from real-property NOI changes the buyer pool and the financing structure.
What kills manufacturing deals: undisclosed customer concentration above 25%, missing equipment maintenance logs, expired supplier contracts, and working-capital surprises in diligence. Each of these is what pre-market staging is for.
what owners actually ask.
EBITDA multiple or SDE — which applies?
Businesses with $1M+ in normalized EBITDA almost always sell on an EBITDA multiple (3-5x in the Texas lower-middle market). Smaller manufacturers under $1M EBITDA may sell on SDE multiples (2.5-4x) with the owner-operator's salary added back.
Should I sell my real property with the business?
Usually no — separating the operating company from the real estate creates two cleaner assets, broadens the buyer pool, and lets you continue collecting rent post-sale. Legacy structures both legs in coordination.
Is my customer concentration a deal-killer?
Single-customer concentration above 25% of revenue forces a buyer discount and shrinks the buyer pool. Concentration is fixable — diversification doesn't have to mean replacing the customer, just adding documented redundancy and customer-relationship documentation.
the first conversation costs nothing.
Whether you're a year out or six months out, the conversation costs nothing, sets the value bar, and protects the asset while you decide.