Light manufacturing
Two publishers, two measures, and bands that do not meet.
Manufacturers are acquired by strategic buyers, by private equity platforms, and at the smaller end by individual operators. The measure changes with the buyer, and the published record for this sector disagrees on both axes at once, on which measure applies and on what the multiple should be within it. What a buyer tests is narrower: whether the operation runs without the owner and whether the numbers reconcile.
The record
What your record already holds.
- Customer contracts, purchase orders, and any supply agreements
- Quoting history, job costing, and realised margin by product
- Bill of materials, routings, and process documentation
- Equipment schedules, maintenance history, and finance agreements
- Quality certifications, audit results, and non conformance history
- Supplier agreements, lead times, and sole source dependencies
- Inventory records, ageing, and work in progress
The questions
The questions worth answering.
- “How much revenue sits with our largest customers, and under what commitment?”
- “Does our job costing reflect true realised margin by product?”
- “Which processes are documented, and which live with a specific operator?”
- “What quality certifications do we hold, and when were they last audited?”
- “Which components are sole sourced, and what is the exposure?”
- “What condition and remaining life is the equipment in?”
Key-person risk
When someone leaves, the reasoning shouldn’t leave with them.
In owner operated manufacturing the owner often holds the quoting judgment, the customer relationships, and the process knowledge that keeps yields where they are. A buyer prices whether that transfers, and the record either documents how jobs are quoted and how processes run or it shows the knowledge sits with people.
High-stakes moments
When the record has to answer.
A strategic or platform approach
Institutional buyers examine customer commitments, margin by product, and process documentation. They price the difference between a business that runs on documented process and one that runs on an experienced operator.
Customer concentration
Manufacturing books are often concentrated. Buyers examine what commitment exists behind the largest accounts and what would happen if one moved.
Quality certification continuity
Certifications may need to be maintained or re earned through a change of ownership. Audit history and non conformance records are read directly.
The published record
What the sources actually say, and what they do not.
Two disagreements stacked on top of each other. The publishers disagree on the measure, with one reporting owner earnings for owner operated shops and EBITDA above that, and they also disagree on the EBITDA multiple itself, with bands that do not overlap at all. One reports EBITDA figures well above the other for the same sector. A fourth figure, the middle half of manufacturers recorded as sold, is stated on owner earnings and belongs against the owner earnings band rather than either EBITDA band. Our estimator leads with what manufacturers actually sold for, which is stated on owner earnings, and shows all four figures beneath with the measure attached to each rather than reconciling them.
6.8x to 11.1x EBITDA across sub sectors
First Page Sage. Applies to private manufacturers, banded at $1M to $3M, $3M to $5M, and $5M to $10M of EBITDA. 2025 report, data from Q3 2023 to Q1 2025.
4x to 6x EBITDA
CT Acquisitions. Applies to manufacturers below $2,000,000 of EBITDA. updated 4 May 2026.
2.5x to 4x owner earnings
CT Acquisitions. Applies to owner operated machine shops below $1,500,000 of EBITDA. updated 4 May 2026.
2.04x to 3.59x owner earnings, the middle half of recorded sales
BizBuySell. Applies to manufacturing businesses reported sold on BizBuySell, 2021 through 2025. data through 2025.
Verelume does not average these publishers or choose between them. Where they disagree, the disagreement is the finding.
What diligence concentrates on here
- Customer concentration and what commitment sits behind the largest accounts
- Job costing and realised margin by product rather than in aggregate
- Process documentation against knowledge held by individual operators
- Equipment condition, maintenance history, and remaining life
- Quality certifications, audit results, and non conformance history
- Sole source component exposure and supplier lead times
- Inventory ageing and work in progress valuation
What Verelume does not do
Verelume does not make engineering or manufacturing judgments, assess quality systems, determine certification status, or provide legal advice. It helps your team find and understand what your own records say, with the sources attached, and flags where documents conflict or where a claim has no documentation behind it.
Related use cases
See what your light manufacturing's record can answer.
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