BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Packaging to Individual / Owner-Operator buyers
Owner-operators, SBA-financed independent buyers, and smaller management buyouts. Pricing reflects what an individual can finance (typically 10-25% down + SBA 7(a)) and operate hands-on. Below typical PE engagement size.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 9.62x across 10 disclosed deals (P25: 5.35x, P75: 12.77x). Median EV/Revenue 1.01x across 13 deals. Median deal value: $400.1M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 13 deals total (3 from 2018+), filtered to Individual / Owner-Operator acquirers of packaging businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Berry Global Group, Inc. (:BERY) (1) · Amcor plc (1) · The Middleby Corporation (1) · Induspac Inc. (1) · UPM-Kymmene Oyj (1) · Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. (:SSCC.Q) (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Individual / Owner-Operator acquisitions of packaging businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Glatfelter Corporation | Berry Global Group, Inc. (:BERY) | $1429.8M | 15.5x | 1.01x |
| 2018 | Bemis Company, Inc. | Amcor plc | $6692.3M | 11.8x | 1.66x |
| 2018 | Hinds-Bock Corporation | The Middleby Corporation | $29.7M | — | 1.98x |
| 2008 | iVEX Protective Packaging Inc. | Induspac Inc. | $7.0M | — | 0.12x |
| 2000 | Champion International Corporation | UPM-Kymmene Oyj | $8807.0M | 10.8x | 1.67x |
| 1998 | Stone Container Corporation | Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. (:SSCC.Q) | $5763.1M | 38.9x | 1.30x |
What this buyer pool prices for
Individual buyers — owner-operators, SBA-financed independents, smaller management buyouts — price for what they can finance (typically 10-25% down with SBA 7(a) loans up to $5M deal value) and operate hands-on. Multiples are below PE / strategic because the buyer is taking the owner-operator role, not stepping in as institutional capital. Owner-dependency and seasonality matter more here than to a PE buyer.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to packaging businesses acquired by individual / owner-operator buyers. EV/EBITDA outliers outside the [0.5x, 60x] band and EV/Revenue outliers outside [0.05x, 25x] are excluded from medians. Where available, post-2018 transactions are weighted; otherwise the all-time sample is used. Deal counts shown reflect deals with disclosed financials only — total transaction count for this buyer pool is typically 2-3x larger. Full methodology
What's your packaging worth to individual / owner-operator?
Get an instant valuation range for your business. Backed by 25,592 real M&A transactions.
Engine-grounded estimate. Comparable individual / owner-operator deals on the full results page.