Bayside Auto Center
Location
Fall River, MA
South of Boston down to the Cape
Industry
Business Broker
Situation
The owner of Bayside Auto Center, a second generation owner who had bought the business from his father, had decided it was time to sell. He had worked with another business broker and was not happy with the progress being made. A former owner of another local auto repair shop who had successfully sold his business with Ed Burkhart as his business broker recommended Ed and BayState Business Brokers.
The owner and his wife were skeptical about the process of selling the business as they had a bad experience in the past when trying to sell a business for the wife’s family. This personal referral to Ed was important to help ease their concerns as they embarked on selling the auto center.
BayState Business Brokers’ Approach
While the auto center included real estate, business broker Ed Burkhart recommended they initially market just the business for sale to attract more interest. The strategy was successful as the listing generated a good amount of interest in the business.
An appealing prospective buyer was identified early, the owners of a similar business in New Hampshire who were looking to expand into Massachusetts. The couple was familiar with the Fall River area of Massachusetts and were interested in the auto center, which included the equipment to continue operating as an inspection station.
Like many business sales, there are often hurdles to overcome and this one was no different. For this prospective buyer to successfully acquire the auto center, the real estate would have to be part of the transaction and there would be two transactions to be coordinated as the couple’s business relationship with their investors was defined for the couple to purchase the real estate and the private equity investors to buy the business.
This arrangement was not ideal for the seller as it complicated the deal. There were now more attorneys involved and the couple was travelling to Italy during critical phases of finalizing the deal which complicated negotiations and lengthened the timeline to close.
At multiple stages, the sellers wanted to walk away.
Results
Despite the hurdles, BayState’s business broker Ed Burkhart maintained the lines of communication among attorneys, the seller and the multiple buyers, and reassured all parties that progress was being made. To ensure the real estate transaction closed, Burkart introduced a commercial real estate attorney licensed in Massachusetts to complete that transaction. While the sale went under agreement relatively quickly, the time to close was elongated, but in the end due diligence was completed, both closings were choreographed and completed enabling both the seller and buyers to achieve their goals.
