NYC Code-Compliant Job-Site Structures & Fire Safety Products Maker, 14-Year Manufacturer

$1.7M

Revenue

$626K

SDE

3.5x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 14-year-old New York City manufacturer and distributor of code-compliant job-site structures and fire safety products, serving contractors across the five boroughs since 2012. The core selling point is regulatory capture in the most literal sense: these products are required by NYC Building Code and FDNY standards on construction sites, meaning demand is driven by law rather than by discretion. The company has been proven on major NYC commercial and infrastructure projects and operates in a niche the seller describes as having very limited competition.

The operation is deliberately lean: simple in-house fabrication, no delivery truck fleet, minimal overhead, and a team of just six full-time employees. On $1.72M of revenue it throws off $625,618 in seller cash flow, a roughly 36% owner-earnings margin that is strong for a light manufacturing business. The asking price of $2.2M puts the deal at 3.52x cash flow.

The owners are retiring and will provide a full transition, and crucially the existing sales partner is staying on, which de-risks the single biggest question in any small manufacturer sale: who holds the customer and specifier relationships. The business is marketed as relocatable (it needs about 3,000 sq ft of warehouse) and the building is not included in the price, so a buyer should budget for a new lease and a move.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is real for the size: $625,618 of cash flow on $1.72M revenue is a 36% margin, well above typical light manufacturing. With minimal overhead, no truck fleet, and only six employees, the cost structure is simple and the margin is believable rather than engineered through one-time items.
The moat is regulatory, which is the best kind for a small business. These products are legally required on NYC job sites and must meet NYC Building Code and FDNY standards, so demand is mandated by statute and the company sits in a niche the seller describes as having very limited competition.
Construction safety and code-compliance products are non-discretionary. A general contractor cannot skip a legally required structure to save money in a downturn, so revenue holds up far better than most construction-adjacent businesses when permits slow but active projects still must comply.
The operator path is clean. The owners offer a full transition with a short learning curve, the sales partner (the key relationship holder) is staying on, and the business is relocatable into just 3,000 sq ft, which means a buyer is not inheriting a sprawling facility or a tangle of trucks and heavy equipment.

How to improve it

Lock down the sales partner with a real agreement in the first 90 days. The entire deal thesis rests on specifier and contractor relationships, so put an employment contract, incentive comp, and a non-solicit in place before close so the goodwill does not walk out the door.
Execute the geographic expansion the seller flagged. Northern NJ and other strict-code cities have comparable fire safety and code requirements, so replicating the NYC playbook in adjacent high-regulation markets is the clearest organic growth lever without reinventing the product.
Add the related job-site services the listing identifies: fencing, storage, and sidewalk protection. These are natural attachments sold to the same contractors on the same sites, letting you raise revenue per customer without a new sales motion.
Build a recurring or framework-agreement layer with large GCs and infrastructure players. Converting repeat project buyers into standing supply agreements or preferred-vendor status would smooth revenue and reduce the per-project re-win that currently defines the model.
Professionalize the sales pipeline and CRM before the move. Document which contractors, projects, and code consultants drive revenue so the relationships become company assets rather than individual ones, which also improves resale value.
Negotiate the warehouse relocation as a value lever. Since the building is not included and you must move anyway, secure a low-cost 3,000 sq ft lease in an industrial zone and capture any savings versus a Manhattan-adjacent footprint directly as margin.
Test modest price increases on legally required SKUs. When a product is mandated by code and competition is limited, price elasticity is low, so a disciplined annual increase likely drops straight to cash flow.

Diligence notes

Verify revenue concentration by customer and by project. A $1.72M business proven on major NYC projects may be lumpy, so pull three years of invoices to understand how much revenue depends on a handful of large GCs versus a broad recurring base of contractors.
Confirm the sales partner's commitment in writing and understand the relationships they personally own. The listing says they are staying on, but diligence should establish for how long, under what terms, and what happens to revenue if they leave within two years.
Stress-test the regulatory moat. Confirm exactly which NYC Building Code and FDNY provisions mandate these products, whether any pending code changes threaten the requirement, and how defensible the 'very limited competition' claim really is against larger national suppliers.
Scrutinize the add-back bridge from $1.72M revenue to $625,618 SDE. A 36% margin is excellent, so validate owner salary, personal expenses, and any one-time items, and separately quantify the cost and downtime of the mandatory warehouse relocation.
Assess the financials for seasonality and NYC construction cycle exposure. While code compliance is non-discretionary, overall job-site activity tracks permit volume and capital spending, so map revenue against NYC construction starts over the last several years.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →