Buying or Selling an Import-Export Business: The Complete Guide

Buying or selling an import-export business comes down to supplier lines a new name can still use, inventory a buyer can count, and a person who can place the next order when you are not on the phone. What trades is transferable cash flow after a real wage, invoices that match the bank, and a landed cost you can defend. A one-factory importer, a trading desk that never touches the goods, and a warehouse that also distributes are different companies. Price a personal factory relationship as if it were a written exclusive and you will use the wrong multiple.

The short answer: an owner-operated importer, where you are still the person the factory and the customer call, often trades around 2x–3.5x Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE) after a real wage. A company with a second buyer already placing orders, written supplier and customer agreements, and inventory that matches the system can move toward 2.5x–4.5x SDE. A managed trading company can be read on adjusted EBITDA. The warehouse, if you own it, is usually a separate price. Those ranges are directional. They are not a quote.

This guide is for import-export businesses — companies that source goods abroad or sell goods into another country and earn a margin on that trade. It sits on our warehouse sale page, next to the specialty distributor guide and the wholesale guide. A freight desk that never owns the goods is a freight brokerage. Do not blend a trading margin with a truck.

Companies that sell well have a count that matches the system, a second person who can order, supplier lines in the company name, and customers that are not only you. Companies that sell poorly are a personality with a factory contact, one supplier that can be pulled, and goods on the water you have already sold twice in your head.

This article is not legal, tax, customs, or sanctions advice. Duties, who may be the importer of record, and what a license requires change by product and by country. Confirm them with qualified counsel before you sign a letter of intent.

Start with the warehouse sale page or a confidential business valuation.

Why an Importer Is Different

An import-export company sells a source and a landed cost. Several facts change the price:

• The factory may be personal. A supplier who will not open an account for the buyer has just removed the business. Ask before you list.
• You may be the only buyer. If every purchase order waits for you, that is key-person risk. A transferable company has someone who has already placed an order you did not write.
• Goods on the water are not cash. In-transit inventory, a letter of credit, and a duty you have not paid belong on a schedule. Buyers will rebuild landed cost.
• Currency and freight move the margin. A year you booked at last year's ocean rate is not this year's gross profit.
• A trading desk and a stocked warehouse do not share a balance sheet. Split them.

Who Pays: Domestic Buyers and Overseas Customers

Domestic customers of an importer

Domestic customers are the core file when you import. A retailer, a distributor, or a contractor who specs your goods. Cash that never hits the operating account will not survive diligence. A Florida customer and a Texas or Illinois buyer can both be real revenue. Put the invoices and the entry packets in the file.

Overseas customers of an exporter

Overseas customers are the file when you export. A purchase order, a payment term, and a freight term are what a buyer can underwrite. One customer at a third of sales is concentration. Ask whether they will take a new name. The answer belongs in the letter of intent.

Main Street versus a lower-middle-market trader

Main Street is you, one factory, and a leased bay. Price it on SDE. Lower middle market is a buyer who is not you, more than one origin, and a compliance file a lender can read. That file can be read on adjusted EBITDA. Do not price a one-person trading phone like a stocked importer with a warehouse team.

What Buyers Underwrite

Invoices and landed cost

Invoices and landed cost are the proof. Buyers want twelve to twenty-four months of sales by supplier and by customer, with product cost, duty, and freight, tied to deposits. A one-time container belongs in the month it landed. It is not the run rate.

Supplier and customer agreements

Supplier and customer agreements are the book. Who appointed you, the terms, the notice, and whether the relationship is personal. A factory that can stop shipping on thirty days is not a five-year exclusive. Get that language on one page.

Inventory, the warehouse, and in-transit goods

Inventory, the warehouse, and in-transit goods are the day a deal moves or dies. Walk the floor on the same day the system is printed. Name what is on the water and who has paid. If you own the building, say so. Buyers price the operating company and the real estate separately. A container in your personal name is not in the deal until the documents say it is.

Duties, credits, and quality claims

Duties, credits, and quality claims are margin a buyer will recalculate. A duty drawback you hoped for, a quality claim you have not reserved, and a customer deduction belong in the file. A buyer who has to build landed cost from a broker's PDF will reserve more than the dollars.

How Sellers and Buyers Should Read the Multiple

Use SDE when the owner is still buying or still selling. Add back only costs a buyer will not keep, and only after a market wage. The valuation guide is the method. Inventory is not inside the multiple. A building you own is a separate price, and SBA 504 can finance the warehouse and long-lived equipment. It does not finance the goodwill of a factory relationship.

Getting the File Ready

Twelve to thirty-six months is the useful window. The sale-prep roadmap is the sequence. For an importer, the work is specific: a second person who can order, supplier lines in the company name, a clean count, and landed cost by shipment. Keep the process quiet. A factory that hears you are selling may appoint someone else. The confidential sale guide is the rule.

Who Buys an Importer

A salesperson who wants the book, a customer who wants the source, and a larger distributor filling a gap are the usual buyers. They do not underwrite the same file. The individual needs SBA, a count they trust, and sometimes seller financing. The 7(a) cap is $5 million. The strategic buyer will ask which factories will stay.

Diligence, Financing, and the First Ninety Days

Diligence is the count, tax returns, customs entries, supplier statements, and open orders. The diligence guide is the calendar. Expect a lender to recast personal expenses, related-party freight, and a one-time container. Working with an SBA lender means the inventory report matches the floor and the entries.

A holdback shows up when one factory or one customer is a third of the year. Tie it to a date. The earn-out note is how that stays a contract. A company that cannot place a Monday order without you is a job with a phone.

What Moves the First Offer

Goods on the water, a quality claim, and a duty you still owe belong in the letter so the price is for inventory a buyer can sell. A container already sold but not received needs a sentence: who owns it, and who pays the freight. Dead stock and a private-label run you cannot sell elsewhere should be written down before the count. Name the person who already places orders, the wage, and the factories they know. A buyer who has not met that person will price a hire. Put the largest supplier and the largest customer on one page. Two years by month keep a single container from becoming the run rate. The close should not assume a Friday wire if the importer of record or the supplier account is still only you. Write that status on the closing checklist before you ask for a price.

A buyer who has seen the warehouse once will still ask who places the next order, which factory will open an account, and what is already on the water. Answer with a name, a supplier list, and a container schedule. A phone contact you have used for ten years is not an exclusive. Put the largest factory and the largest customer on one page, with the notice each can give and whether the appointment is in the company name. If the factory will only ship to you, the earnings that depend on that line should be labeled before anyone multiplies them.

Landed cost is the recast that decides the multiple. Product, freight, duty, and the brokerage fee belong on each shipment a buyer will sample, not as a single gross-margin percentage for the year. A container you sold at last year's ocean rate will not repeat. Currency that moved in your favor for two quarters is the same kind of spike. Show the spread by month. Dead stock, a private-label run you cannot sell to anyone else, and goods already claimed by a customer should be written down on the count date. In-transit inventory is not cash, and it is not the same asset as a carton on the floor.

Open orders need an owner after you leave. Name the person who already writes purchase orders, the wage, and the customers they have spoken to without you. Include letters of credit, deposits you have paid a factory, and deposits a customer has paid you. A deposit spent on overhead is not inventory. If you are the importer of record, or a license sits in your personal name, that status belongs next to the asking price. Two years of sales by month, split by origin and by customer, keep one container from becoming the run rate. The first offer moves when the count, the entries, and the second buyer are already in the room.

The same standard applies when you also run a trading desk that never stocks the floor. Show the contracts, the credit, and who is the importer of record on those shipments. Do not hide a desk's spread inside a warehouse multiple, or a warehouse's inventory inside a trading multiple. A buyer should see two earnings lines when you do both. Duties you hope to recover, and quality claims you have not reserved, stay off the add-backs until the cash is in the account. A Florida customer and a buyer in Texas or Illinois can both be real volume. The file is the entries and the count, not the state on the letterhead.

Talk With Bridge Point

If you are preparing to sell an import-export business — or you are a buyer who can hold the supplier lines and the customers — Bridge Point Business Brokers can help you value the margin and the inventory separately, and keep the process confidential. Start with a valuation or contact us at (352) 515-0226.