Sell your manufacturing business.

Concentration is the first question

A manufacturing sale is a customer file, a floor that can still hold tolerance, and a book of materials that is not one purchasing manager’s cell phone. Buyers underwrite how much of shipments sit in the top accounts, whether those accounts are written releases or blanket POs that can walk, and whether the part is dual-sourced in the customer’s mind. A job shop with a diversified release schedule is a different asset than a captive line that is really three programs and a prayer.

If one OEM or retailer is most of the year, say the share before anyone tours the plant. We would rather price that risk in the open than discover a 90-day termination clause after a letter of intent.

Machines, lease, and work in process

Equipment is real money only if it is unencumbered, still supported, and allowed to stay under the lease or the owned building. A landlord who never planned for a press line, or a sale-leaseback the buyer cannot live with, strands more than a CNC. Work in process and finished goods have to be counted at something a successor will actually ship—not at standard cost from an optimistic year.

Tooling the customer owns, tooling you own, and tooling that is “ours until they call” need a list. So do environmental files, air permits, and any wastewater story the city already knows about.

Quality systems and the people who run the floor

ISO or customer audits, first-article history, and a plant lead who is not you are what make the releases transferable. A founder who is still the estimator, the setup, and the customer call is owner labor. Bridge Point will ask for a concentration table, an equipment list with liens, and who can run a shift before we talk about a process. That pack tells us whether you have a plant or a job with machines.

A job shop is SDE until a lead already runs the shift

A founder who still quotes, buys material, and walks the floor is an SDE file. After a real production wage, those shops often trade around 2x–3.5x SDE. A lead already running jobs, with more than one customer and equipment titled to the company, often moves toward 2.5x–4.5x SDE. A managed plant priced near $10 million is more often read on adjusted EBITDA, commonly about 3x–6x. Customer concentration moves the number more than the machines. These ranges are directional, not a quote, and not legal, tax, or lending advice.

Strategics, owner-operators, and when a sponsor is even relevant

Most job shops sell to an owner-operator who can staff a shift, or to a strategic plant that already runs similar work. A buyer who only wants the machines is an equipment sale. A financial buyer sometimes appears when releases are diversified and a manager already runs the floor. A one-press shop is not that file.

SBA 7(a), and sometimes 504, can fund a light plant when the book is diversified and the liens are mapped. The SBA 7(a) cap is $5 million. Tooling the customer owns is not collateral. This is not lending advice.

Florida light industry, and a plant that is not in Florida

Florida files are often light manufacturing, marine, building products, or food plants, not a Midwest heavy line. Wage, power, and the customer are local. A concentration table still decides the price in both places. Bridge Point works manufacturing sales nationally from Spring Hill and does not paste a coastal multiple onto a plant that ships to one OEM.