Established Paving & Site Concrete Contractor, 54-Year San Diego Operator · Accredited

Published OCT 29, 2026

Established Paving & Site Concrete Contractor, 54-Year San Diego Operator

San Diego County, California

$9.6M

Revenue

$600K

SDE

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Andy

Ben Sampson

Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 54-year-old asphalt paving and site concrete contractor based in San Diego County that completes roughly 400 projects a year, from $1.5K repairs up to $1.6M paving jobs. TTM revenue is $9.58M with $2.87M in gross profit (30%) and around $600K in SDE. The work mix is roughly 75% asphalt paving and overlays, 10% site concrete, and 10% to 15% slurry seal, seal coating, and striping, with grading, patching, curb and gutter, sidewalks, and ADA ramps rounding out the offering.

The demand driver here is maintenance, not new construction. Only 10% to 15% of work is tied to new builds; the rest comes from existing pavement that wears out, ADA requirements that change, and properties that need another round of upkeep. About 80% of revenue is repeat business and the top 10 customers make up only about 20% of revenue, so there is no single-customer dependency. Customers skew commercial (roughly 70%) and include general contractors, property and asset managers, HOAs, cities, water districts, and utilities.

The operation runs on its own crews, a roughly $4.19M fleet at original cost, and two in-house master mechanics who handle maintenance down to engine rebuilds. Five estimator/project managers carry jobs from bid to completion under a superintendent and CFO, a structure stable enough that the owner already travels a month each year. Backlog has consistently held at $2M or more and open contracts show roughly $4.8M balance to complete. Crews and equipment run at only 65% to 70% of capacity, which the owner frames as headroom to $12M to $14M before adding another paver, roller, or crew.

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How to improve it

Hire the first dedicated outbound sales rep. The company has never had one and relies almost entirely on repeat work and referrals, so a single hire targeting asset managers, portfolio owners, architects, and civil engineers could pull in significant incremental work from customer types already served. This directly attacks the gap between 70% utilization and full capacity.
Raise bonding capacity to chase larger public work. Current bonding is only $1M per project and $3M aggregate, which caps the municipal and utility bids the company can pursue. A buyer with a stronger balance sheet can lift those limits and open bigger prevailing-wage projects with cities and water districts already in the customer base.
Pursue military prime contracting. The business has only ever done military work as a subcontractor, leaving margin on the table. A buyer with federal contracting experience and the right certifications could bid prime work and tap a durable, well-funded customer channel.
Expand coverage in neighboring counties where crews already operate. The company works through existing relationships in adjacent markets but has no steady presence. Standing up a satellite yard or dedicated crew to anchor those territories converts occasional work into a repeatable second market.
Backfill the CFO seat before close and formalize the management layer. The CFO role must be filled after the sale and no employees have employment agreements, so retention risk is live. Putting key estimators and the superintendent on incentive or retention agreements protects the relationships that drive 80% repeat revenue.
Push margin on the slurry seal, seal coating, and striping line. These higher-frequency, lower-ticket services (10% to 15% of revenue) renew on short cycles and can be systematized into recurring maintenance contracts with HOAs and property managers. Converting one-off repairs into scheduled annual programs lifts both revenue predictability and gross margin above the current blended 30%.
Tighten estimating and job costing to lift the 30% gross margin. With 400 jobs a year and price-sensitive commercial bidding, small per-job improvements compound. Using the existing Bluebeam and QuickBooks Enterprise data to flag low-margin job types and tighten bid discipline can move gross profit without adding headcount.

Diligence notes

Scrutinize the SDE conversion. Revenue of $9.58M against $600K SDE is a thin roughly 6% owner-earnings margin for a capital-intensive paver, so confirm what the CFO salary is, whether equipment maintenance and replacement reserves are fully expensed, and what normalized owner add-backs actually look like. Understand why margin is this compressed before pricing the deal.
Verify the fleet condition and replacement runway. The $4.19M original-cost fleet is claimed to be mostly 3 to 5 years old with two in-house mechanics doing engine rebuilds, but inspect hours, deferred maintenance, and remaining useful life on pavers, rollers, skid steers, and trucks. A near-term capex wave would meaningfully change the real cash flow picture.
Confirm backlog quality and prevailing-wage exposure. Backlog is cited at $2M-plus with $4.8M balance to complete, so review open contracts for margin, change-order risk, and how much is public work subject to certified payroll and prevailing wage. These costs can erode margin on municipal and utility jobs.
Pressure-test employee retention and key-person risk. There are no employment agreements, the CFO seat opens at close, and the business depends on five estimators who own their own customer relationships. Map which relationships leave with which estimators and build retention around the people who actually carry the 80% repeat revenue.
Review the lease and yard situation. The 2-acre yard with modular office, storage, and mechanic bays runs only through 2028 with a 2-year option at about $125K annual occupancy. Confirm renewal terms, because losing the yard would be operationally disruptive for a fleet-heavy contractor.
Reconcile the forward-dated financials. The listing cites TTM revenue 'as of 9/30/26' and a 9/30/26 balance to complete, which implies projected or unusual period-end dating. Obtain actual historical financials for the last three fiscal years to confirm the revenue, gross profit, and SDE figures are trailing actuals, not forecasts.