NC Luxury Windows & Doors, 23-Year North Carolina Install & Service Firm

$10.3M

Revenue

$1.2M

SDE

4.7x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 23-year-old North Carolina home improvement firm specializing in the consultation, sale, installation, and service of luxury windows and doors. It runs two showrooms and serves homeowners, builders, and remodelers across Central and Eastern North Carolina. The business does roughly $10.3M in revenue against about $1.17M in cash flow, which is an 11.3 percent SDE margin, on the thin end for a services firm and a signal that this is a volume, project-driven operation rather than a high-margin niche.

What separates this operator from a typical window installer is its decision to run dedicated in-house installation teams instead of subcontracting labor. That gives direct control over quality, scheduling, and customer experience, which matters in a product category where install failures (leaks, drafts, warranty callbacks) destroy margin and referrals. The team of 33 spans management, supervisors, and technicians, and marketing is handled by an outside specialist.

The revenue mix blends retail replacement work with new-construction packages for builders, which creates some repeat-builder relationships but also concentration risk tied to the local housing cycle. Note the asking price excludes the owned real estate, which the seller values separately at roughly $3.0M. A buyer must bring their own limited residential General Contractor license, which narrows the buyer pool and should be confirmed early in diligence.

Why we like it

At $5.5M for $1.17M of cash flow, the 4.71x multiple is full for a sub-12 percent margin project business, but the in-house install model is a genuine quality lever. Owning labor instead of subbing it out gives direct control over rework, callbacks, and the customer experience that drives referrals in this category.
Two established showrooms, 33 employees, and a 23-year operating history create a real local brand and referral engine that is hard to replicate from scratch. The recent second-showroom expansion shows the model travels within the region and gives a buyer a tested playbook for further density.
Builder and remodeler relationships provide a semi-repeatable demand channel beyond one-off retail replacements. If a buyer formalizes account coverage and warranty follow-up, this base can throw off referral and reorder volume at low acquisition cost.
The owner is retiring after 18-plus years with a clean, operator-run structure and an outside marketing function already in place. A buyer with contractor credentials and sales management experience can step in without rebuilding the team.

How to improve it

Attack gross margin at the job level within the first quarter. The listing itself flags freight, rework, and installation costs plus product-level margin data, so build a simple job-costing dashboard and reprice low-margin SKUs and underwater builder accounts.
Tighten lead conversion in the showrooms. With two physical locations already carrying fixed cost, even a few points of close-rate improvement on existing foot traffic and quote volume drops straight to SDE without new marketing spend.
Formalize a service, warranty, and reorder follow-up program to manufacture repeat revenue. Windows and doors are one-off purchases, so a structured post-install touch sequence is the only way to turn a project into referrals, cross-sells, and future replacement jobs.
Reduce customer concentration by diversifying the builder base and expanding retail replacement demand. Map revenue by account and set a ceiling on any single builder before closing to protect downside if a major relationship walks post-sale.
Secure the required limited residential General Contractor license path before close. This is a hard gating requirement that shrinks the buyer pool, so either the buyer holds it or a licensed manager must be retained and locked in.
Separate the real estate decision deliberately. The owned property is valued near $3.0M outside the asking price, so decide whether to buy, lease, or sale-leaseback, and use a long-term lease to free capital for working capital and marketing.

Diligence notes

Scrutinize the revenue mix between retail replacement and new-construction builder work. New construction is cyclical and lower margin, so understand how much of the $10.3M is exposed to the local housing cycle and interest-rate sensitivity.
Quantify customer concentration among builders and remodelers. The listing explicitly mentions managing concentration, so pull the top 10 accounts by revenue and gross profit and model the hit if the largest one or two leave after the sale.
Validate the sub-12 percent SDE margin and the cash flow add-backs. On $10.3M of revenue, $1.17M is thin, so confirm whether the owner's compensation, the real estate rent, and the external marketing cost are properly normalized into a buyer's go-forward P&L.
Confirm the General Contractor license requirement and any manufacturer dealer agreements. Verify that preferred window and door brand relationships transfer, that pricing tiers survive a change of ownership, and that the install warranty obligations are quantified and reserved for.
Press on the two-week transition window, which is light for a $5.5M project business with 33 employees. Negotiate a longer paid consulting tail and introductions to key builders, vendors, and the outside marketing specialist to de-risk the handover.
Separate the real estate terms in writing. Confirm whether the satellite showroom lease is assignable, the rate and term on the rented location, and the proposed lease or purchase economics on the $3.0M owned property that sits outside the asking price.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →