Truck & Van Upfitting Business, 50-Year San Bernardino County Manufacturer & Installer

$4.9M

Revenue

$1.1M

SDE

4.4x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 50-plus-year-old truck and van upfitting business in San Bernardino County that manufactures, sells, and installs work-truck equipment for contractors, fleets, municipalities, school districts, leasing companies, and truck/van dealers. Product lines include truck racks, tool and storage boxes, towing equipment, fuel tanks and pumps, bed liners, and cargo control systems. The standout piece is that the company manufactures its own proprietary steel storage boxes, which drives both differentiation and margin versus a pure reseller/installer.

The operation runs out of a 28,000 sq. ft. leased facility housing a retail showroom, warehouse, installation bays, and manufacturing space. It employs 11 full-time long-term staff and is already manager-run, with the owner out of state and not involved in daily operations. On roughly $4.9M of revenue it throws off $1.14M of cash flow (about a 23 percent margin), which is strong for a light-manufacturing plus installation shop.

At $5.0M asking (4.4x cash flow), the deal is SBA pre-approved, includes $1.51M of inventory, and the seller is willing to carry the 10 percent down payment and provide transition support. Revenue is well diversified with the largest customer at roughly 5 percent, and the business reportedly weathered COVID and supply chain disruptions intact. This is a boring, essential, cash-generative business serving working fleets that keep running regardless of the economic cycle.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is real: $1.14M cash flow on $4.9M revenue is a ~23 percent margin, unusually healthy for a business that mixes manufacturing and field installation. The proprietary steel storage boxes explain part of that margin premium versus a pure reseller, and margins held through COVID and supply chain chaos.
The moat is 50 years of local reputation plus in-house manufacturing. Customer concentration is minimal (largest account ~5 percent) across contractors, municipalities, school districts, and fleets, so no single loss cracks the P&L. Municipal and fleet relationships are sticky and reorder on replacement cycles.
The demand is genuinely recession-resistant. Work trucks for contractors, utilities, and municipalities need racks, boxes, and equipment whether the economy is hot or cold, and much of the volume is maintenance and replacement rather than discretionary. Public-sector buyers especially keep spending through downturns.
The operator advantage is that it is already manager-run with 11 long-term employees, so a buyer inherits a functioning team rather than a job. SBA pre-approval plus seller-carried 10 percent down means you can control this asset with minimal cash out of pocket, and the seller carry aligns incentives on the handoff.

How to improve it

Push proprietary product sales channel-wide. The in-house steel boxes carry the best margins, so build a dealer and direct-ship program to sell them beyond the local install radius. Every unit shipped without an install slot is incremental margin that does not consume bay capacity.
Formalize municipal and school district contract pipelines. These buyers run recurring bids and blanket purchase orders, so dedicating one person to RFP response and prequalification lists can lock in predictable multi-year volume. This deepens the most recession-proof slice of revenue.
Stand up a real online sales presence within 90 days. The listing flags increasing online and direct-shipped sales as an obvious lever, and a catalog site with e-commerce checkout on accessories converts the existing brand into national reach. Start with the highest-margin proprietary SKUs.
Work the inventory. $1.51M of inventory against $4.9M revenue is heavy, so audit SKU velocity, cut dead stock, and tighten purchasing to free trapped cash. Better inventory turns directly improve return on the capital tied up in the deal.
Evaluate a second location or satellite install bay. With one 28,000 sq. ft. facility saturating a single market, expanding into an adjacent county lets you replicate the model and grow fleet accounts. Test with a small install-only outpost before committing to full manufacturing duplication.
Install owner-independent management systems and KPIs. Since the owner is already absentee, document the manager's playbook, tie compensation to cash flow and on-time install metrics, and build a scorecard so the business does not depend on any one person. This protects value and makes a future exit cleaner.

Diligence notes

Verify the absentee claim and the strength of the existing manager. The whole thesis rests on the business running without the owner, so confirm the manager's tenure, compensation, retention risk, and whether they will stay post-close. A single key-person departure here is the biggest hidden risk.
Scrutinize the $1.51M inventory line. Age it, test for obsolescence, and confirm it is salable at carrying value, because inflated or slow-moving inventory quietly erodes the real purchase price. Understand how much of the asking price is working capital versus goodwill.
Confirm the lease terms on the 28,000 sq. ft. facility. The building is leased, not owned, so review remaining term, renewal options, rent escalators, and whether the landlord is related to the seller. A short or unfavorable lease materially changes the risk of a location-dependent manufacturing operation.
Validate the cash flow and margin quality. Get three years of tax returns and add-back schedules to confirm the $1.14M is clean SDE, and understand how much depends on the proprietary boxes versus lower-margin resale. Also test whether COVID-era pricing power is durable or normalizing.
Assess customer and revenue durability. With the largest account at ~5 percent, confirm that diversification and check the mix of municipal versus commercial revenue, contract terms, and reorder patterns. Diversified but transactional revenue behaves differently than contracted recurring volume.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →