The best time to sell is when your supplier relationships are stable, your customer base is diversified, and the business doesn't depend on you to manage the key accounts day to day. Distribution businesses are currently attracting strong buyer interest — particularly those with niche positioning, exclusive agreements, or government contracts. Owners who go to market prepared consistently outperform those who wait for a forcing event.

Most distribution transactions take 6 to 12 months from engagement to close. Deals with inventory complexity, international supplier agreements, or multiple stakeholders can run longer. The businesses that close fastest are clean, well-documented, and operationally prepared before they go to market. Our Hot Products transaction closed quickly because the business was well-positioned and the right buyer came in with an all-cash offer.

Your customer list, supplier agreements, and pricing are the most sensitive assets in your business — and we treat them that way. That information is never shared during the marketing process. It is only released to a single buyer, after an offer has been accepted and the deal has entered due diligence. To learn more about how we control the flow of confidential information, see our Information Release Timeline

Normal levels of inventory are typically included in the purchase price as part of the going-concern business. If your inventory is significantly above or below what's considered normal for your operation, that's worth an early conversation with your advisor to address before you go to market. Buyers will conduct a physical inventory count and reconciliation as part of due diligence, and the condition, turnover rate, and age of inventory all affect how it's valued. Slow-moving or obsolete stock can be a sticking point — it's worth getting ahead of this before you go to market.

Exclusivity agreements are a significant value driver — they create a defensible moat that buyers pay a premium for. Supplier concentration, on the other hand, can be a risk flag if a single supplier represents the majority of your cost of goods. Buyers will want to understand the terms of key supplier agreements and whether they are transferable. CBA addresses this early in the process so there are no surprises in due diligence.

In most distribution deals, a normalized level of inventory is included in the purchase price as part of a working capital target. Equipment and warehouse assets are typically considered part of the going-concern business. If you own the real estate, that's a separate conversation. CBA negotiates these details carefully to make sure you understand exactly what you're selling and what you're walking away with.

It depends on the niche and size. Niche distributors with proprietary positioning — like Hot Products in the personal watercraft space — attract experienced industry operators and entrepreneurs who recognize the moat. Larger distribution businesses attract PE platforms and strategic acquirers looking to expand geographic reach or product lines. Food service and wholesale distributors attract both regional operators and buyers expanding from other markets, as we saw with Chaz Distributing. CBA maintains active relationships across all of these buyer categories.

It's worth considering but comes with real tradeoffs. Internal buyers rarely have the capital to close without seller financing or SBA debt — which means you're carrying more risk and often accepting a lower price than the open market would deliver. The right move is to run a proper competitive process first and see what the market actually offers before committing to an inside deal. Learn how our confidential auction process works.