BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Food Distribution to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up buyers
Private equity firms and PE-backed platform consolidators acquiring for roll-up, add-on, or platform plays. Pricing tends to lead the market for fee-viable scale, with multi-bidder competitive processes above the EBITDA floor.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 11.88x across 7 disclosed deals (P25: 10x, P75: 14.01x). Median EV/Revenue 0.61x across 13 deals. Median deal value: $304M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 13 deals total (7 from 2018+), filtered to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquirers of food distribution businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Bartlett and Company, Inc. (1) · Aurora Cannabis Inc. (1) · Brenntag Specialties, LLC (1) · 2326230 Alberta Ltd. (1) · Sysco Corporation (1) · Acomo N.V. (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquisitions of food distribution businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Ceres Global Ag Corp. | Bartlett and Company, Inc. | $206.5M | 14.0x | 0.24x |
| 2022 | Bevo Agtech Inc. | Aurora Cannabis Inc. | $43.9M | 11.3x | 2.61x |
| 2021 | JM Swank, LLC | Brenntag Specialties, LLC | $304.0M | — | 0.61x |
| 2021 | Sunora Foods Inc. | 2326230 Alberta Ltd. | $2.8M | 14.0x | 0.23x |
| 2021 | The Coastal Companies | Sysco Corporation | $525.0M | — | 0.88x |
| 2020 | The Organic Corporation B.V./Tradin Organics USA LLC | Acomo N.V. | $404.2M | 10.0x | 0.79x |
What this buyer pool prices for
Private equity acquirers price for scale and roll-up arbitrage. They pay up for businesses that fit a platform thesis — recurring revenue mix above 30%, technician/professional depth, clean financials, and a management layer that survives integration. The same food distribution can command 1.5x to 2x the multiple of an individual-buyer transaction simply because the PE buyer is acquiring a platform piece, not an owner-operated shop.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to food distribution businesses acquired by private equity / pe-backed roll-up 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
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