Branded Apparel, Print & Fulfillment Business, Middle Tennessee

$5.6M

Revenue

$1.2M

SDE

5.2x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a Middle Tennessee screen printing, commercial print, and brand fulfillment operation running out of 11,200 square feet of leased commercial space. The business handles high-volume screen printing, digital print, webstore management, and pick-and-pack fulfillment entirely in-house with a 27-person non-union team, while outsourcing specialty embroidery to established vendor partners. Its equipment base is anchored by multiple automated M&R screen-printing presses, giving it real production capacity with minimal near-term capital reinvestment required.

The customer mix is genuinely diversified: commercial accounts (50%), school districts (25%), hospitality (15%), and non-profits (10%), with no single client exceeding 11.4% of revenue. That concentration profile is a meaningful de-risker for a print shop, where customer loss is the most common way earnings evaporate. The custom online ordering portals for corporate uniforms and branded gear are the most interesting piece of the model, because they convert one-off print jobs into repeatable, sticky reorder behavior.

In 2025 the business produced $5.56M in revenue and roughly $1.06M in adjusted EBITDA (SDE of $1.24M), a solid margin for this category. It runs a single daytime shift, leaving obvious latent capacity that a buyer can unlock. The founders intend to stay on post-close to preserve relationships and continue driving sales, which is both a support asset and a dependency to underwrite carefully.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is respectable for a print shop, with $1.06M adjusted EBITDA on $5.56M revenue and a real FF&E base of automated M&R presses. Margins in the high teens on adjusted EBITDA are above average for commodity screen printing, which usually signals decent job mix and pricing discipline. The custom client portals suggest the revenue is stickier than typical one-off print work.
Customer diversification is the standout de-risker here, with no single account above 11.4% and a spread across commercial, schools, hospitality, and non-profits. School district and corporate uniform work tends to reorder on predictable cycles, which softens the lumpiness common in print. Losing any one account would sting but would not break the business.
The online ordering portals for corporate uniforms and branded gear create default reorder behavior, which is the closest thing this category gets to recurring revenue. Once a company's branded catalog lives in your portal, switching costs and inertia work in your favor. That is a genuine moat relative to a walk-in print shop competing on price.
There is clear, cheap capacity upside: the plant runs a single daytime shift with idle equipment and space, and the seller frames $8M to $10M revenue on a second shift with minimal CapEx. That is operating leverage a buyer can pull without a big check. Adding a dedicated B2B rep to cross-sell promo products into existing portal accounts is low-risk incremental margin.

How to improve it

Add a second production shift to absorb the idle equipment time and physical space, targeting the stated $8M to $10M revenue ceiling without new facility cost. This is the single highest-ROI move and it uses assets you already paid for at close. Model the incremental labor and utility cost carefully against the marginal gross profit per shirt.
Hire a dedicated B2B sales rep to systematically cross-sell promotional products (drinkware, bags, signage) into the existing corporate portal accounts. These customers already trust you with their brand, so the acquisition cost is near zero and the attach rate should be high. This converts a fulfillment relationship into a fuller category spend.
Bring specialty embroidery in-house rather than outsourcing to vendor partners, capturing the margin currently leaking out and improving lead times. Even a modest embroidery cell pays back quickly if volume justifies it, and it removes a vendor dependency. Diligence the current outsourced volume first to size the opportunity.
Productize the client portal offering and sell it as a lead magnet to new corporate accounts, positioning it as a managed branded-store service. The portal is the stickiest part of the business and should be the tip of the sales spear, not just an operational convenience. Package onboarding so new logos are live and reordering within weeks.
Institute quarterly price reviews and pass-through mechanisms on garment and ink costs, since apparel input prices move and thin print margins get eaten fast. Many owner-run shops under-price out of relationship habit. Tightening this alone can add several points of EBITDA without losing meaningful volume.
Reduce founder dependency by documenting sales relationships and building a CRM-driven account handoff plan during the transition window. The founders staying on is a benefit, but the deal risk is that revenue walks with them. Use their tenure to systematize introductions and transfer key accounts to salaried staff.

Diligence notes

Verify the split between SDE ($1.24M) and adjusted EBITDA ($1.06M), and scrutinize every add-back, since the ~$188k gap is largely owner compensation. Confirm what a market-rate replacement for the two founders costs, because they intend to stay and drive sales. If replacing them costs $200k+, true buyer earnings are lower than headline EBITDA suggests.
Pull the customer-level revenue detail to confirm the 11.4% top-account claim and examine reorder rates through the portals over the last 24 to 36 months. Diversification is the core thesis, so it must be verified, not taken on faith. Check whether school district work is contract-based or bid annually, since re-bid risk changes the durability story.
Underwrite the founder-transition risk hard, because they are staying specifically to preserve relationships and drive sales. Structure a meaningful earnout or seller note tied to revenue retention so their incentives survive the close. Understand exactly which accounts are relationship-driven versus portal-driven and self-sustaining.
This is discretionary branded apparel and promotional spend, which is cyclical: corporate merch, event gear, and hospitality budgets get cut in a downturn. Review 2020 and any soft-quarter financials to see how revenue behaved under stress. School district work provides some ballast, but do not assume this holds up like an essential service.
Assess the M&R press fleet age, maintenance history, and the real near-term CapEx despite the 'minimal CapEx' claim, especially if you add a second shift and run the equipment harder. Also confirm the lease terms on the 11,200 sq ft facility, including remaining term, renewal options, and rent escalators. A short or expensive lease materially affects the deal.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →