275-Unit ATM Route, San Francisco County

$500K

SDE

2.8x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is an ATM route operating 275 machines across San Francisco County, generating a stated $500,000 in annual cash flow off a two-employee footprint. The portfolio splits into two revenue engines: 50 seller-owned ATMs placed in convenience stores, grocery-anchored centers, and high-traffic retail, plus 225 merchant-owned units that run under processing contracts the seller controls. The owned units carry surcharge income and interchange; the merchant-owned units carry contract-locked processing margins without the capital drag of owning the hardware.

The pitch centers on the processing contract structure, which the seller frames as materially stickier than standard location placement deals. Merchant-owned machines cannot easily flip processors, so the argument is lower churn and more predictable income than a typical route where any location can pull your box for a competitor's. The business claims established systems for vault cash logistics, armored car coordination, PCI compliance, and merchant management, with EMV-certified and ADA-compliant Genmega and Hyosung hardware on the owned fleet.

At $1.4M against $500K cash flow, this is a 2.8x deal in a fragmented category where most operators run sub-50 unit books. The scale is the real asset here: it buys negotiating leverage on processing contracts, armored car rates, and compliance overhead that smaller routes cannot match. Owner is retiring and no seller financing is on offer, which matters given how much of the value rests on contract quality and cash logistics that a buyer must inherit cleanly.

Why we like it

The 2.8x multiple on $500K cash flow is reasonable for a route business, and the two-employee footprint means most of that cash flow drops through to an absentee owner. The stated dual model (owned surcharge income plus merchant-owned processing margins) diversifies where the money comes from, so a single lost location does not crater the P&L.
The processing contract structure is the actual moat, and it is a real one if it verifies. Merchant-owned machines under contracts you control cannot easily switch processors, which is stickier than typical location placement deals where any store can swap your box for a competitor's the day the surcharge split gets better.
ATM cash access is boring, non-discretionary infrastructure. People still pull cash in a downturn, and surcharge-driven volume tends to hold or even rise when consumers get tighter, so the revenue base is genuinely recession-resilient rather than tied to discretionary spend.
Scale is a defensible advantage in a category where most operators run sub-50 unit routes. At 275 units you get negotiating leverage on armored car contracts, processing rates, and compliance costs that fragmented single-operator competitors cannot access, which is the cleanest path to margin expansion post-close.

How to improve it

Run a location-level transaction audit and reallocate underperforming owned units to proven high-traffic sites within the first quarter. Redeploying dead machines to validated locations is the fastest lever because the capital is already sunk in the hardware, you just need better placement.
Implement dynamic surcharge optimization across the owned fleet, testing price elasticity by location type. Even a 25 to 50 cent surcharge lift on high-volume machines flows almost entirely to the bottom line since your armored car and vault costs are largely fixed per stop.
Renegotiate armored car and cash logistics contracts using the full 275-unit volume as leverage. Cash-in-transit and servicing are the biggest variable cost in this model, and pushing rates down even 10 to 15 percent meaningfully lifts per-unit economics.
Build a merchant referral engine to acquire more processing contracts through the existing network. The merchant-owned model requires zero hardware capital from you, so every new processing contract is nearly pure margin and scales the stickiest part of the business.
Tighten and document contract renewal terms and lock in longer processing agreements before churn windows open. Since the entire valuation thesis rests on contract stickiness, extending weighted-average contract length directly protects and grows enterprise value at exit.
Systematize route scheduling and servicing to cut cost per stop, potentially clustering machines geographically. San Francisco County is dense, so route optimization can reduce servicing labor and armored car mileage without touching revenue.

Diligence notes

Get revenue confirmed, because it is not disclosed anywhere in the listing. A 2.8x on cash flow tells you nothing without seeing gross surcharge income, interchange, processing splits, and the cost stack, so demand two to three years of processor statements and bank deposits before trusting the $500K figure.
Scrutinize the processing contracts unit by unit for the 225 merchant-owned machines. Verify remaining term, renewal mechanics, surcharge splits, and whether the contracts actually transfer to a buyer, because the entire moat and much of the cash flow live in these agreements.
Validate transaction histories per machine and identify concentration risk. Route businesses often have a small number of high-volume locations carrying the P&L, so map where the cash flow actually comes from and stress-test what happens if the top 10 percent of machines leave.
Confirm PCI compliance status, EMV certification, and any pending regulatory or armored car vendor issues. Compliance failures or a vault cash banking relationship that does not transfer can freeze operations, and with no seller financing you carry all that risk yourself.
Pressure-test the absentee claim against reality. A two-employee operation running vault logistics, merchant relationships, and compliance may lean heavily on the retiring owner's relationships and knowledge, so map exactly what the seller does day to day and whether the 90-day transition truly covers it.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →