70-Year Lumber & Building Material Dealer, Western Wisconsin

$10.9M

Revenue

$898K

SDE

3.0x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 70-year-old family-owned lumber and building material dealer in western Wisconsin (La Crosse County) that supplies contractors and homeowners. The business skews heavily toward professional contractors with some direct homeowner sales on larger projects, and it offers a full menu of products and services: professional design and drafting, kitchen and bath, cabinetry, windows, doors, millwork, roofing, siding, and tool sales and rentals. It runs on the BisTrack ERP platform, which is the industry-standard operating system for building material dealers, so the back office is already modernized.

The operation sits on 11 acres with 41,445 square feet of warehouse, showroom, and office space across multiple buildings. Staffing is deep and tenured: an owner-operator plus a full-time store manager, 22 full-time and 3 part-time employees, most of whom have been with the company for years. That combination of a real manager layer and long employee tenure is what makes this saleable to an owner who wants a going concern rather than a job.

On the numbers, 2025 gross sales were $10.95M with roughly $898K in cash flow, up meaningfully from $537K in 2024 and $619K in 2023. Through July 2026 sales were tracking around $5.5M, so revenue is stable in the $10.5M to $11M band. The asking price of $2.7M covers equipment, furniture, and fixtures (estimated $765K) but excludes roughly $975K of inventory and the $3.4M real estate, which the seller would prefer to lease to the buyer on a 3-year minimum with a right of first refusal.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is real but lumpy: cash flow ran $619K, $537K, and $898K over 2023 to 2025, so the current $898K is the high mark rather than a smooth trend. On a $2.7M ask (which excludes inventory), the headline 3.0x multiple looks fair, but a buyer should underwrite closer to the three-year average of roughly $685K to be safe.
Durability comes from 70 years of local relationships and a contractor-heavy customer base. Building material dealers with tenured staff and an entrenched contractor book are sticky because contractors buy on relationship, credit terms, and delivery reliability, not just price. The BisTrack platform means the systems and history transfer cleanly to a new owner.
The deal structure protects downside on capital. The $3.4M real estate is offered as a 3-year lease rather than a forced buy, so a buyer can control the operating business for $2.7M plus $975K of inventory without tying up $6M+ in property day one. Bank financing is available on both the business and the buildings for a qualified buyer.
Operator advantage is significant here. This is an owner-operator business with a full-time store manager already in place, so an experienced building products or distribution operator can step in, retain the manager, and focus on margin, purchasing, and adding builder accounts rather than rebuilding the team from scratch.

How to improve it

Diagnose the 2025 cash flow jump immediately. The step up from $537K to $898K in a single year could reflect a pricing tailwind, a one-time large project, or lumber cost swings, so confirm whether the $898K is repeatable before setting your purchase price and financing terms.
Tighten purchasing and inventory turns. With roughly $975K of inventory not included in the ask, the buyer sets the working capital base, so implement SKU-level turn analysis in BisTrack and cut slow-moving stock to free up cash and lift gross margin.
Expand the contractor account base and credit relationships. Contractors drive most revenue, so build a formal outside-sales motion to add builder and remodeler accounts, deepen wallet share, and reduce reliance on the seller's personal relationships during transition.
Push higher-margin categories. Design and drafting, kitchen and bath, cabinetry, and millwork carry better margins than commodity lumber, so shift showroom focus and installed-sales programs toward these lines to lift blended gross margin without adding volume.
Grow the tool rental line. Rental revenue is high-margin and recurring in nature, so audit the current rental fleet utilization and reinvest in high-demand equipment to create a steadier, less cyclical revenue stream alongside commodity material sales.
Lock the property economics early. Negotiate the 3-year lease rate and the right of first refusal terms before close so real estate cost is fixed and predictable, and evaluate whether buying the $3.4M property outright later improves total return versus renting.
Formalize succession under the store manager. The owner is retiring and staff are tenured but aging, so document processes, cross-train, and give the store manager clear P&L ownership to reduce key-person risk once the seller's transition period ends.

Diligence notes

Reconcile cash flow year by year and identify the drivers of the 2025 spike to $898K. Get add-back schedules, the owner's compensation, and confirm whether any of the gain came from lumber price inflation that could reverse, because the multiple is only attractive if earnings hold.
Assess cyclicality and exposure to housing and construction. This business tracks new construction and remodel activity in western Wisconsin, so stress-test volumes against a downturn and review the 2008 to 2011 history if available, since building materials are not recession-proof.
Verify the lease terms and total occupancy cost. The seller prefers a 3-year lease on $3.4M of real estate, so confirm the rent, escalators, renewal options, and right of first refusal, and model how that occupancy cost hits the $898K cash flow once a market-rate lease replaces owner-occupied property.
Confirm inventory value and quality. Roughly $975K of inventory is excluded from the ask, so audit for dead, damaged, or discontinued stock and negotiate a fair working capital peg, because commodity lumber can carry meaningful markdown risk.
Evaluate customer concentration and receivables. A contractor-heavy book can hide reliance on a few large builders and slow-paying accounts, so review the aged AR, top-customer revenue share, and credit exposure before committing.
Review employee retention and key-person risk. The 26-person team is tenured but the owner is retiring, so confirm the store manager will stay, understand compensation, and identify any employees whose departure would disrupt purchasing, delivery, or key contractor relationships.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →