Industrial Motor & Generator Service Company, 55-Year Tennessee Operation

Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 55-year-old industrial service company based in the Mid-South region of Tennessee that repairs and services electric motors, generators, switchgear, and power generation equipment for manufacturing and industrial customers. The work is fundamentally break-fix and maintenance driven: when a plant's motor fails, production stops, and this company is who they call. That dynamic creates sticky, repeat demand from a diversified base of industrial clients who cannot afford downtime.

The operation runs on 13 full and part-time employees with average tenure of 10 to 15 years, which matters enormously in a trade where specialized knowledge of motor rewinding and switchgear is hard to replace. The business owns its real estate (valued at $1.8 million), carries $900,000 in inventory, and holds $1.2 million in specialized equipment and FF&E. Roughly $3.9 million of the $6 million asking price is tangible hard assets.

On a going-concern basis, this is a $2.7 million revenue shop throwing off $517,582 in cash flow, and the seller is retiring after decades at the helm. The headline 11.59x multiple is misleading because it is calculated on cash flow alone while real estate, inventory, and equipment make up the bulk of the price. Strip out the asset value and the operating business is being priced at a much more sensible multiple, which is the real story a buyer needs to underwrite.