Similar businesses sell at 1.5x to 3.5x SDE. Compare live listings and connect with sellers.
National transaction benchmarks for route business businesses.
Under $500K
$500K to $2M
A variety of factors can cause businesses to trade outside this range, including earnings quality, operational transferability, key-person risk, growth trajectory, and geography, so a listing priced above or below the typical multiple usually reflects real differences in the underlying business.
Cofounder & CEO
Key diligence, valuation, financing, and transition considerations for buyers evaluating route business acquisitions.
Route businesses span vending, ATM, branded package delivery, direct-store distribution, and service routes like coffee or laundry, and each has very different economics. A vending route lives on machine placements; a delivery route may depend on a contract with a national parent. Before valuing anything, pin down the type, because the risks, the assets, and the transferability differ completely from one to the next.
What you are really buying is a set of placements or accounts, and their value depends on how locked-in and concentrated they are. Many placements run on informal, cancellable arrangements rather than firm contracts, and a few large stops can dominate the revenue. Get a full list of locations or accounts, the terms of each, how long they have been in place, and how concentrated the income is.
Route sellers often present attractive income figures that are difficult to confirm, so insist on actual collection or sales records per stop. Pro forma projections and round numbers are warning signs in this category. Ask for machine-level or account-level data over time, and reconcile it against bank deposits, because a route's value is only as real as the cash it actually produces.
Vending machines, ATMs, and route trucks wear out, and a seller under pressure stops maintaining them. Replacement costs and breakdowns hit your throughput directly. Inspect the machines and vehicles, get their age and condition, confirm titles and any financing, and budget for the equipment the seller has let slide rather than assuming it is all serviceable.
For franchised or branded routes, such as package delivery or distribution for a national brand, the territory is granted by a parent company with its own approval and transfer requirements. You may need the parent's consent to take over, and the agreement may restrict what you can do. Read the territory or franchise agreement carefully and confirm the parent will approve you before you count on the route.
Answers to common buyer questions for this market.
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