SouthEast Concrete Pumping Co., 20-Year North Carolina Contractor

$2.7M

Revenue

$734K

SDE

3.4x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a concrete pumping services business founded in 2005 and based in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, the Charlotte metro. The company runs a fleet of pump trucks that deliver concrete to job sites for large home builders, concrete contractors, and residential homeowners. It is primarily a residential operation with a smaller commercial component, and the trucks are staged out of a central warehouse positioned near its main job corridors.

The economics are strong for a construction services business: $2.65M in revenue against $734K of SDE, a 28% owner-earnings margin. That margin, combined with a customer base that has stuck around since inception and generates work purely through referrals with zero advertising spend, tells you the business has real embedded relationships and operational discipline. A team of 13 runs the day-to-day.

The asking price of $2.5M is a 3.4x SDE multiple, and it includes $1.7M in FF&E, which for a concrete pumping outfit means the truck fleet. That is the crux of the deal: you are paying $2.5M for a business whose hard assets alone are appraised near $1.7M, so a large share of the price is backed by depreciating but real and financeable equipment rather than pure goodwill.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is legitimate for the category, with $734K of SDE on $2.65M of revenue for a 28% margin and a two-decade operating history. The cash flow comes from repeat builders and contractors who have used the company since inception, not from a handful of one-off jobs. That repeat-customer concentration cuts both ways, but it signals the work is sticky and margins are earned, not manufactured.
The moat is relationship and asset density. Twenty years of referral-driven revenue with zero advertising spend means the phone rings without marketing cost, and the $1.7M pump fleet is a real capital barrier that keeps casual competitors out. Concrete pumping is a specialized, licensed, equipment-heavy service that home builders would rather outsource to a trusted operator than internalize.
The purchase price is meaningfully asset-backed, which is the downside protection you want. With $1.7M of FF&E inside a $2.5M ask, roughly two-thirds of the price is supported by hard equipment that can be appraised, financed, and in a worst case liquidated. That reduces the pure-goodwill exposure you carry if a top customer walks.
The operator upside is clearly telegraphed and untouched. The seller runs on referrals with no sales function, no advertising, and a light commercial book, so the obvious levers, hiring a salesperson, expanding geographically with existing builder clients, and pushing into commercial, are all still on the table for a buyer who wants to grow rather than just harvest.

How to improve it

Hire a dedicated salesperson or estimator in the first 90 days to formalize outbound to home builders and general contractors. The business currently grows on referrals alone, so even a modest sales function should lift utilization on trucks you already own and expand the commercial mix at high incremental margin.
Build a simple scheduling and utilization dashboard tracking pump hours per truck per day. With $1.7M of fleet, the single biggest profit lever is squeezing more billable hours out of existing equipment before buying any new trucks, and most owner-run shops of this size have no real utilization data.
Diversify away from residential concentration by intentionally quoting more commercial work. Residential pumping tracks the housing cycle tightly, so winning commercial and infrastructure jobs smooths revenue through downturns and reduces the single most obvious risk in the P&L.
Implement preventive maintenance and fleet-replacement scheduling to protect the asset base. Pump trucks are the whole business, and unplanned downtime on a peak build day directly kills revenue, so a documented maintenance program both protects earnings and preserves resale value of the FF&E.
Institutionalize customer relationships that currently live in the owner's head. Since much of the repeat business is founder-driven, put the top 20 accounts on written service agreements or at minimum documented contact ownership so the referral engine survives the transition.
Introduce basic digital presence and lead capture. A business doing $2.65M on zero advertising is leaving demand on the table, and even a simple website plus Google Business profile plus a quote form would capture the residential homeowner segment that competitors are advertising to.

Diligence notes

Verify the $1.7M FF&E figure with an independent equipment appraisal and confirm the fleet is owned free and clear versus financed or leased. The entire downside protection thesis rests on this number, and you need to know the age, hours, and remaining useful life of each pump truck.
Pull customer concentration by revenue for the last three years. The listing leans on long-tenured builders and contractors, so if two or three accounts drive the majority of revenue, the effective multiple is much higher than 3.4x once you risk-adjust for a customer defection.
Stress-test the residential dependency against the housing cycle. Charlotte has been a strong build market, so review revenue and cash flow through 2008 to 2011 if data exists, and model what happens to $734K of SDE if residential starts drop 30%.
Confirm the SDE build and normalize owner add-backs. A $734K SDE on $2.65M revenue is high for the category, so scrutinize what is added back, whether the 13-person payroll includes the working owner's replaceable labor, and what a market-rate manager would cost if the buyer is absentee.
Assess driver and operator staffing given specialized licensing. Pump operators are skilled and hard to replace, so review tenure, wage rates, and whether key personnel intend to stay through and after the retiring owner's exit.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →