Full-service Sign and Awning Manufacturer

Situation

The business partners had been approached by a strategic buyer to acquire their sign and awning manufacturing business, but the final agreement of the deal could not be reached. When the deal fell apart, the two owners who had bought the business when it was very small and had grown it considerably, decided to move forward to sell the business. One owner was ready to retire. A friend of one of the owners recommended BayState Business Brokers and broker Molly Hanson.

BayState Business Brokers’ Approach

Molly met with the owners and completed a walk through of their facility. She was impressed with what she saw and instinctively knew that including a virtual tour of the business in her marketing strategy would help showcase the business to qualified buyers.

The business was strategically listed without a price, attracting many individual and strategic buyers. While lots of buyers were interested in the business, there was a perceived risk of the gap left by the owner who was planning to retire, since he led marketing, sales and purchasing for the business.

Two strategic buyers emerged from Hanson’s marketing efforts with one party emerging as the preferred buyer. While it was their first acquisition of a business, they were committed and creative and had secured a buy-side broker to work with them.

Hanson was thrilled to co-broker the deal as the buy-side broker greatly assisted in the acquisition going smoothly.

An important aspect of brokering this sale was calculation of work in process (WIP) and working capital to finalize the letter of intent. The sell-side developed a proposed method for calculating both and proposed the approach to the buy-side. An agreement was reached and the deal progressed to a purchase and sale agreement following a successful due diligence period.

Results

Post-closing agreements were agreed to for both sellers, enabling one to achieve his goal to retire after a transition period and the other to enjoy a longer employment opportunity. Seller-financing was included in the financing terms.

The owners were happy to secure a strategic buyer who would continue running and growing the business they had matured over the years; the strategic buyers were thrilled to acquire an established business with an impressive client base.

What Our Clients Say

We were extremely pleased with the job that BayState Business Brokers did in listing and ultimately selling our business. Our broker, Molly Hanson, guided us through the process from its inception through close. She was proactive, accessible and a pleasure to deal with. We always felt she had our best interests at heart and could be relied on to provide good advice. Having been through an unsuccessful attempt to sell previously, the value of a good broker proved itself over and over again.

David Randa
Former Co-Owner
ViewPoint Sign and Awning
Northborough, MA