Established Commercial Landscaping & Grounds Maintenance, Indiana Contractor

$2.8M

Revenue

$761K

SDE

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a Midwest commercial landscaping and grounds maintenance operation based in Indiana, founded in 2015. Its revenue mix spans contracted grounds maintenance, landscape installation and enhancements, weed control and fertilization, and winter snow and ice management. The snow and ice line is the quiet hero here: it smooths the seasonal revenue curve that plagues pure mow-and-blow operators and gives the business something to sell its customers in the months when the grass stops growing.

The numbers presented are strong for the category. The listing cites roughly $2.82 million in trailing gross revenue with $760,577 in cash flow, and references an FY2025 CBR figure of approximately $3.26 million in revenue and $1.11 million in SDE, implying both growth and a mid-20s to low-30s percent owner-earnings margin. A 24-person (listed as 21) W-2 workforce includes dedicated sales and operations leadership, which matters because it means the owner is not the only person who can run routes or win work.

The business operates from a leased shop and yard with concentrated service routes and an owned fleet of trucks, trailers and equipment carried at roughly $1.15 million in schedule cost. Growth has been organic, anchored by multi-year commercial maintenance agreements and repeat project work from the existing base. It is positioned as a platform or add-on for a sponsor pursuing landscaping consolidation, or as a standalone acquisition for a qualified operator.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is genuine and asset-backed, not a spreadsheet mirage. The business throws off $760k in cash flow on $2.8 million of revenue, roughly a 27 percent margin, and $1.15 million of owned fleet and equipment travels with the deal so a meaningful slice of the purchase price is covered by hard assets.
The moat is the contract book, not the mowers. Multi-year commercial maintenance agreements and add-on snow and ice management create switching friction and predictable renewals, which is exactly the recurring-route dynamic that makes landscaping bankable rather than bid-to-bid.
Commercial grounds maintenance and snow removal are non-discretionary line items for property managers and facility owners. Buildings still need mowing, salting and plowing in a recession, so the demand floor here is sturdy and the snow line adds counter-seasonal cash flow that pure summer operators lack.
The operator advantage is a built-in team you do not have to assemble. A 24-person W-2 crew with dedicated sales and operations leadership means an acquirer inherits management depth, not just a founder who is the single point of failure, which de-risks day-one continuity.

How to improve it

Audit the maintenance contract portfolio in the first 90 days and push every expiring agreement to multi-year terms with annual price escalators tied to labor and fuel. Contracts that auto-renew with built-in CPI bumps protect margin and raise the exit multiple by making revenue visibly recurring.
Mine the existing commercial base for enhancement and installation upsells, which the listing explicitly flags as untapped. Selling seasonal color, hardscape and irrigation projects to customers who already trust you is the cheapest growth available and carries higher project margins than base maintenance.
Formalize the snow and ice line with seasonal-flat or per-event contracts rather than ad-hoc callouts. Locking in guaranteed-minimum snow agreements smooths winter cash flow and turns weather volatility into predictable recurring revenue.
Tighten crew routing and labor utilization with GPS and job-costing software to lift revenue per truck per day. With 24 employees and a fleet carried at $1.15 million, even a modest gain in route density drops straight to the bottom line.
Build a light sales engine targeting property management firms, HOAs and commercial real estate owners in adjacent Indiana markets. The business has grown organically with no apparent outbound motion, so a disciplined pipeline could accelerate growth without heavy capital.
Institutionalize the owner's key relationships before the consulting window closes. Document every major account, introduce the new ownership personally, and tie the seller's consulting pay to retained revenue so the relationship risk is transferred, not just promised.

Diligence notes

Reconcile the two sets of financials before anything else. The header shows $2.82 million revenue and $760,577 cash flow while the narrative cites an FY2025 CBR of $3.26 million revenue and $1.11 million SDE, so confirm which period and which add-backs are real and whether the higher figure is genuine growth or aggressive normalization.
Pull the contract book and measure customer concentration and renewal history. Verify how much revenue sits under multi-year agreements versus one-time project work, the top five customers' share of revenue, and how many contracts are up for rebid in the next 24 months.
Stress-test the snow and ice line across weather cycles. A light winter can gut that revenue, so review the last three to five seasons of snow billings to understand the real variability and whether the business has guaranteed-minimum protection or is purely weather-dependent.
Verify the fleet's true condition, age and lien status against the $1.15 million schedule cost. Confirm what is owned free and clear versus financed, deferred maintenance and replacement capex, and factor the real near-term fleet reinvestment into the return model.
Examine the leased shop and yard terms since no real estate conveys. Confirm remaining lease length, renewal options, rent escalators and whether the location is critical to the concentrated routes, because a landlord squeeze post-close could meaningfully erode margin.
Assess labor dependency and wage pressure across the 24-person crew. Confirm the sales and operations leadership will stay, review turnover, prevailing wage exposure and any H-2B or seasonal labor reliance that could complicate staffing in a tight market.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →