East Valley Commercial Electrical Contractor

$1.3M

SDE

2.9x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

Well-established commercial electrical contractor based in the East Valley of Phoenix. For more than 20 years the company has delivered commercial electrical installation, and tenant improvement work... Businesses Franchises Brokers Loading... The page you requested could not be found. Try retyping the address and trying again. If you think you have encountered a problem, please Contact Us. Find a Business for Sale All Business Categories Agriculture Automotive and Boat Beauty and Personal Care Building and Construction Communication and Media Education and Children Entertainment and Recreation Financial Services Health Care and Fitness Manufacturing Non-classifiable Establishments Online and Technology Pet Services Restaurants and Food Retail Service Businesses Transportation and Storage Travel Wholesale and Distributors Any State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Select County Search Businesses Find a Franchise Any Category AutomotiveBeauty and FitnessBusiness OpportunitiesBusiness ServicesChild RelatedCleaning and MaintenanceComputer and InternetEducationGreenHealth and Senior CareHigh CapitalHome Based BusinessesHome ServicesHotLow CostMaster FranchisesMobileMulti UnitPetRestaurant and FoodRetailSBA ApprovedSports and RecreationTravel and LodgingVeteran's Search Any State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Capital Available to Invest Up to $25,000 Up to $50,000 Up to $100,000 Up to $250,000 Up to $500,000 Up to $1,000,000 Up to $5,000,000 Search Franchises Useful Links BizBuySell Homepage Sell a Business Find a Broker Valuation Report Sitemap Contact Us Buy a Business Search for a Business Established Businesses Asset Sales How to Buy a Business Buy a Franchise Search Franchises For Sale Low Cost Franchises Restaurant and Food Franchises Business Opportunities Retail Franchises Sell a Business Sell a Business on BizBuySell Sell Multiple Businesses How to Sell a Business Value a Business Find a Broker Tools & Advice Learning Center Finance Center Market Insights Business for Sale Blog Business Brokers Find a Broker For Brokers My BizBuySell Dashboard My Business Selling My Listings Guide to Selling Add a New Listing Searching My Saved Listings My Saved Searches Franchise Recommendations BizBuySell Edge Edge Preferences Recommendations Location Insights BizBuySell Edge Edge Preferences Recommendations Location Insights Research Guide to Buying Valuation Reports Message Center My Mailbox My Inquiries Email Preferences Export Leads Account Account Settings My Billing Info BrokerWorks My BizBuySell Dashboard Leads Billing My Saved Listings My Saved Searches Account Sign Out Sign In a6301374279843840.cdn.optimizely.com a6301374279843840.cdn.optimizely.com is blocked This page has been blocked by an extension Try disabling your extensions. ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT Reload This page has been blocked by an extension

Why we like it

Earnings quality looks solid for the trade, with $1.31M in cash flow on a 22-year operating base and a reasonable 2.86x asking multiple. A two-decade track record through multiple construction cycles, including the 2008 collapse and 2020, suggests the business has proven it can survive downturns rather than just riding a boom.
The moat is the electrical license itself plus longevity. Commercial electrical work is license-gated, inspection-driven, and relationship-dependent, which keeps casual competitors out and makes incumbent GC relationships sticky. Twenty-two years of name recognition in a single metro is real goodwill, not just a number on a spreadsheet.
Market tailwinds are unusually strong here. Maricopa County and the East Valley have been among the fastest-growing regions in the US, with semiconductor fabs, data centers, distribution, and commercial buildout all driving sustained demand for commercial electrical capacity. Tenant improvement work specifically benefits from the constant churn of commercial tenants, which provides demand even when new construction slows.
Operator advantage is meaningful for a buyer who already runs trades or can install a strong general manager. Many contractors this size are run as lifestyle shops with no real sales process or estimating discipline, so a buyer who professionalizes bidding, scheduling, and project management can expand margin without needing more revenue.

How to improve it

Build a recurring service and maintenance revenue line on top of the project work. Commercial clients need ongoing electrical maintenance, panel upgrades, lighting retrofits, and emergency repair, which is higher-margin and far more recession-resistant than one-off installations. This converts a lumpy project business into a more predictable base of cash flow.
Tighten the estimating and bidding process within the first 90 days. Many trade shops underbid to win volume and leave margin on the table; installing a disciplined cost-plus estimating system with clear win-rate tracking can lift gross margin several points without adding headcount.
Pursue the data center and semiconductor buildout boom in metro Phoenix aggressively. With TSMC, Intel, and major data center operators expanding in the area, a commercial electrical contractor with proven longevity should be positioning to bid the higher-spec, higher-margin work that comes with these projects.
Reduce key-man risk by documenting the master electrician licensing structure and cross-training project leads. If the business depends on the owner's individual license or a single estimator, formalize a succession plan and ensure the qualifying party transfers or is replaceable so the license does not walk out the door.
Implement project management software and job costing if not already in place. Real-time visibility into labor hours, material costs, and project margin lets you catch underperforming jobs before they bleed cash, which is the single biggest profit leak in contracting.
Expand the GC relationship roster to reduce concentration. If a handful of general contractors drive most of the revenue, build a business development effort to add new GC and direct-owner relationships, which both grows the book and de-risks the cash flow against losing any single client.
Negotiate better supplier terms and explore prefabrication. At this revenue scale there is buying power to negotiate volume pricing on materials, and prefab assembly off-site can compress labor costs and improve schedule reliability, both of which fall straight to the bottom line.

Diligence notes

Get the actual revenue figure and a three-year P&L, because cash flow alone tells you nothing about scale or margin trajectory. A $1.31M cash flow on $6M revenue versus $12M revenue implies very different operating profiles and different growth runway, and you need to see whether revenue is rising, flat, or declining.
Scrutinize customer and GC concentration carefully. Find out what percentage of revenue comes from the top three to five clients, because contractor businesses often have dangerous concentration where losing one GC relationship can cut cash flow in half. Tie this to whether those relationships are owner-personal or institutional.
Verify the licensing structure and who holds the qualifying party license. Confirm whether the master electrician license is the owner's personal credential and what it takes to transfer or replace it post-sale, because this is the single biggest deal-killer in trade acquisitions if the license cannot be retained.
Examine the backlog, work-in-progress, and pipeline. Request the current signed backlog and bid pipeline to understand how much revenue is already contracted versus speculative, and review WIP accounting to ensure cash flow is not being inflated by jobs that are not yet truly profitable.
Review the labor situation including the size, tenure, and licensing of the field crew. Skilled electrician labor is scarce in a hot Phoenix market, so understand wage rates, turnover, any union exposure, and whether the crew is loyal to the owner or to the company before you commit.
Confirm the reason for sale and the seller transition plan. The listing does not state why the owner is selling, so understand their motivation, willingness to finance a portion of the deal, and how long they will stay to transfer GC relationships and operational knowledge.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →