NYC Union Plumbing Contractor - Staten Island Platform

$922K

SDE

1.9x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a union-affiliated full-service plumbing contractor founded in 1961, serving Staten Island and the greater NYC metro across commercial, institutional, and residential work. The company runs the full mix of service calls, alterations, and select larger projects, with a team of 14 (7 full-time, 7 contractors), a fleet, and established operating infrastructure out of roughly 4,000 SF of industrial/office space in Staten Island. After six decades in the market, it carries genuine reputation equity and a base of repeat customers.

The real strategic angle here is the union affiliation plus NYC master plumber licensing requirements, which together create a hard moat. The NYC mechanical contracting market is notoriously protected by licensing and labor rules, which limits new entrants and opens the door to larger commercial, institutional, and public-sector contracts that non-union shops cannot bid. For a licensed plumbing or mechanical contractor already operating in the region, this is a bolt-on platform that delivers instant NYC footprint, a union workforce, and access to gated project pipelines.

The deal is priced at $1,795,000 against $922,000 in SDE, roughly a 1.95x multiple, which is cheap for a 60-plus-year operator in a barrier-heavy market. The owned building (8,800 SF mixed-use, valued at $2.6M) is explicitly NOT in the asking price but is available separately, and seller financing plus SBA eligibility are on the table. The key gate is the licensing requirement: the buyer must be or must employ an appropriately licensed NYC master plumber with majority ownership or management control.

Why we like it

At 1.95x SDE on $922K of cash flow, this is priced below typical trades multiples for a business with this kind of operating history. The margin is meaningful and the asset base (fleet, $100K inventory, equipment) is included in the price, so a buyer is not paying a goodwill premium on top of hard assets.
The union affiliation combined with NYC master plumber licensing is a real moat, not marketing fluff. These requirements gate access to commercial, institutional, and public-sector bids that the vast majority of plumbing shops cannot legally pursue, which structurally limits competition and protects pricing.
Plumbing is about as recession-resistant as trades get. Pipes break, code compliance is mandatory, and institutional and municipal clients keep spending through downturns, so the demand base does not evaporate when the economy softens.
Sixty-plus years in business with established recurring customer relationships means the cash flow is not founder-dependent novelty, it is a durable book. A licensed acquirer already operating in NY metro gets an instant footprint expansion and a trained union crew, which is far cheaper than building one from scratch.

How to improve it

Lock down the licensing structure in the first 90 days. If the buyer is not a master plumber, immediately confirm and formalize the licensed manager or majority-ownership arrangement so the company keeps bidding without interruption, because losing license status would zero out the moat overnight.
Increase bidding volume on union and public-sector projects. The listing flags underutilized bid capacity, so a well-capitalized owner can put more estimating muscle behind larger institutional and municipal RFPs that competitors are locked out of, converting the licensing moat into top-line growth.
Build out recurring service contracts. Move from project-by-project work toward maintenance agreements with commercial and institutional clients, which smooths revenue, raises customer lifetime value, and makes the business more defensible and more valuable at exit.
Add licensed personnel to expand throughput. The current ceiling is partly labor and licensing capacity, so recruiting or developing additional qualified plumbers lets the firm take on more concurrent jobs and pursue larger contracts without bottlenecking on the principal.
Negotiate the real estate decision deliberately. The owned 8,800 SF building is available separately at $2.6M, so model both a long-term lease versus an SBA-financed purchase and decide which structure protects cash flow while securing the operating location.
Tighten job costing and gross margin tracking by project type. Union labor is expensive, so install disciplined estimating and percentage-of-completion accounting to identify which work (service vs. alterations vs. large projects) actually drives the SDE and double down there.
Formalize the customer relationships beyond the founder. After 60 years, much of the goodwill likely sits with ownership personally, so document the relationships, transition introductions during the seller's structured handoff, and convert verbal arrangements into contracts.

Diligence notes

Verify the licensing and union compliance status in detail. Confirm exactly which master plumber license the operation runs under, whether it transfers or must be replaced, and what the union collective bargaining agreement obligates the buyer to, because the entire moat and the legal ability to operate hinge on this.
Gross revenue is not disclosed, so reconstruct it from tax returns and confirm the $922K SDE add-backs are legitimate. With union labor and 7 contractors, scrutinize how contractor costs, owner compensation, and any related-party rent are being treated in the cash flow figure.
Examine the backlog and customer concentration carefully. The title touts a backlog, so quantify signed versus pipeline work, check how much revenue comes from the top few clients, and assess whether any large institutional contracts are at risk of non-renewal post-sale.
Clarify the real estate and rent arrangement. The building is owned by a related entity and excluded from the price, so confirm whether the SDE includes a below-market related-party rent that will rise under an arm's-length lease, which would compress real earnings.
Assess the 7 contractor relationships and workforce stability. Determine whether the contractors are genuinely independent or effectively employees, what their continuity looks like post-sale, and whether key union tradespeople are likely to stay through the transition.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →