Selling or buying a distribution business
Exclusive lines, inventory turns and a sales team that owns nothing personally.
If you own one
Thinking about selling your distribution business?
Distributors are valued on the durability of both ends of the relationship — supplier agreements on one side, customer accounts on the other. Exclusive or protected territories are a genuine asset when they survive a change of control, and a serious liability when nobody has checked. That is worth confirming before a buyer does it for you.
What raises the price
- Supplier or distribution agreements that survive a change of ownership
- Exclusive or protected territories with real term
- Inventory turns and obsolescence managed and reported
- Customers spread across the sales team rather than held by the owner
- Systems that give a buyer accurate margin by line and by customer
What a buyer will discount
- Supplier agreements with change-of-control clauses nobody has read
- Dead inventory carried at full cost
- A manufacturer that could go direct to your customers
- Working capital needs that surprise a buyer late in diligence
None of this is a reason to wait. Most of these are fixable, and knowing which ones apply to you is exactly what a valuation is for.
What is my distribution business worth?
Nine questions, an indicative range on screen, and a scorecard showing which value drivers you already have and which are costing you money. No cost, no obligation, and nothing is published.
Get a free valuationPrefer to talk it through first? Use the form below — it reaches a person, not a queue.
If you want to buy one
Looking to acquire a distribution business?
The good ones have protected lines that transfer, disciplined inventory management and customers spread across a real sales organisation. Watch working capital carefully — it is where distribution deals get renegotiated.
Not sure you are ready to compete? Take the readiness check — two minutes, and it tells you exactly what sellers compare buyers on.
Get told before it is listed
Most good businesses in this sector are placed with a prepared buyer before they are ever publicly advertised. Buyers on file hear first. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Register what you are looking forStart the conversation
Tell us which one you are
Whether you own a distribution business or want to buy one, this is the same first step: a short, confidential conversation with a person who has done this before.
- Read personally — never a shared inbox or an auto-responder
- Confidential. We do not contact your employees, customers or competitors
- No cost and no obligation to do anything with the answer
- You can leave anything blank and fill it in later
Handled with care and discretion
Everything you send is treated as confidential. It is read by the person you addressed it to, used only to respond to you, and never sold, shared with foreign entities or used for unsolicited marketing. We do not contact your employees, customers, suppliers or competitors.
Want it in writing first? Say so and we will send a non-disclosure agreement for signature before anything specific is discussed. Plenty of owners prefer that, and nobody is offended by being asked.
Submitting this form does not create a legally binding agreement, an engagement, or a confidentiality obligation on its own — it starts a conversation. Anything binding is a document both sides sign.
Questions owners actually ask
Supply Chain & Distribution: the questions we get
How do I sell my distribution business?
We confirm your supplier agreements will transfer, clean up inventory reporting, value the business at no cost, and market it confidentially to buyers who understand working capital in distribution.
What is a wholesale distribution company worth?
Earnings, adjusted for the working capital the business genuinely needs, and then moved materially by supplier agreements, territory protection and customer spread.
What happens to my supplier agreements when I sell?
It depends on their change-of-control language, which is exactly why we read them at the start rather than in diligence. Where consent is needed, there is usually a way to sequence it.
Related business types
Also in transport, logistics & supply chain
Start with a number, not a decision
A complimentary, confidential valuation tells you what your distribution business would be worth today and what is holding it back. Whether you act on it is entirely up to you.