Reputable Tire Shop & Auto Repair, 20-Year Westchester NY Operation

$1.8M

Revenue

$1.3M

SDE

3.3x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 20-plus year tire and automotive service business operating from a 7-bay, 3,960-square-foot facility along a high-traffic commercial corridor in Westchester County, New York. The shop runs a diversified service mix including tire sales, preventive maintenance, diagnostics, and general automotive repair, which spreads demand across multiple revenue lines and keeps bays full regardless of any single category softening. With 13 full-time employees including certified technicians, long-tenured staff, and an alignment and suspension specialty, it functions as a full-service independent shop rather than a one-trick tire store.

The standout feature here is the economics. On $1.77M of revenue the business throws off $1,278,608 in owner cash flow and $1,178,608 in EBITDA, which is an extraordinary roughly 72 percent SDE margin for an auto service shop. Margins that high are either a sign of a genuinely dominant local operator with pricing power, or a flag that the owner is adding back aggressively. Either way it demands close scrutiny, because the entire $4.25M ask (3.32x cash flow) rests on that number holding up.

Management depth is a real asset. The listing describes a semi-absentee structure with an experienced on-site leadership team handling work orders, scheduling, diagnostics, and customer relations, plus key technicians with 20-plus years of tenure and a revenue-based bonus structure. The real estate is leased and offered for separate purchase, so a buyer acquires the going concern and will need to secure a long-term lease or negotiate the property as a second transaction.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is the headline: $1.28M of cash flow on $1.77M of revenue is a roughly 72 percent SDE margin, which is far above typical auto service shops that run 15 to 25 percent. If that number survives diligence, you are buying a cash machine; if it does not, the whole thesis unwinds, so the margin is both the attraction and the central risk.
The service is genuinely non-discretionary. Tires wear out, brakes fail, and cars need maintenance in any economy, and the diversified mix across tires, diagnostics, preventive maintenance, and repair means the shop is not dependent on one category. This is the kind of boring, essential cash flow that compounds through downturns.
There is a durable moat in the location and reputation. A 20-plus year shop on a high-traffic commercial corridor in affluent Westchester County benefits from visibility, repeat customers, and switching costs rooted in trust, which national chains struggle to replicate at the independent level.
Management infrastructure is already built. With 13 full-time staff, on-site leadership running the operation, technicians with 20-plus years of tenure, and a semi-absentee owner, a buyer inherits a functioning team rather than a job, making this attractive for an operator who wants to manage from above rather than turn wrenches.

How to improve it

Verify and then protect the lease immediately. The real estate is leased and sold separately, so in the first 90 days lock in a long-term lease with renewal options at a market rate, or negotiate to buy the property, because a landlord with leverage over a 72 percent margin shop can claw back a huge share of that cash flow at renewal.
Build out fleet and commercial accounts. The listing flags fleet accounts as an untapped channel, and a single municipal, delivery, or contractor fleet in Westchester can add predictable recurring volume that smooths out seasonal tire demand and raises bay utilization during slower retail weeks.
Install a formal customer retention and reminder system. Mileage-based service reminders, tire rotation schedules, and a simple membership or maintenance plan convert one-off visits into predictable repeat revenue and increase lifetime value per customer without adding physical capacity.
Push higher-margin service categories. Alignment and suspension is already a stated specialty, so market it aggressively alongside diagnostics and brake work, which carry better labor margins than commodity tire sales and let you capture more dollars per car already in the bay.
Tighten the technician compensation and retention plan. Key techs with 20-plus years of tenure are the engine of this business and a concentration risk, so formalize retention bonuses, non-competes where enforceable, and a bench-building apprenticeship so the departure of one or two people does not crater throughput.
Modernize marketing and local search. A long-established shop often underinvests in digital, so improve Google Business Profile reviews, local SEO, and online appointment booking to capture the steady stream of new residents and searchers on the corridor who currently default to national chains.
Review pricing discipline across categories. If margins are truly 72 percent the shop has pricing power, so audit labor rates and parts markups against local comps to ensure nothing is being left on the table while maintaining the reputation that drives repeat business.

Diligence notes

Scrutinize the 72 percent SDE margin line by line. This is the single most important diligence item: pull three years of tax returns and bank statements, reconcile reported revenue to merchant processing and point-of-sale data, and examine every add-back, because a margin this far above the industry norm is unusual and must be explained with documents, not narrative.
Confirm the lease terms and the real estate economics. Since the property is leased and sold separately, obtain the current lease, remaining term, renewal options, and rent, and model what happens to cash flow if rent resets to market or the landlord sells, as this directly determines what the going concern is actually worth.
Assess employee and technician concentration. With staff carrying 20-plus years of tenure and a semi-absentee owner, quantify how dependent revenue is on one or two key people, verify there are no undisclosed owner duties that would require a new hire, and gauge retention risk tied to the ownership change and retirement.
Validate revenue mix and recurring demand. Break down revenue by tires, maintenance, diagnostics, and repair, and check for any customer or fleet concentration, seasonality in tire sales, and the percentage of repeat versus new customers to confirm the recurring-demand claim holds up under the numbers.
Investigate the reason for the high cash flow relative to the modest facility. A 3,960-square-foot, 7-bay shop generating $1.28M in cash flow implies extremely high revenue per bay, so verify throughput, average ticket, and labor efficiency are realistic and sustainable rather than inflated by one-time or non-recurring items.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →