You want to sell your wholesale food business? Then it is good to know what the takeover market in the field of wholesale food products looks like. Wholesalers experienced tough times during the pandemic, and the rise of online grocery shopping is slowly but surely moving wholesalers toward the necessary digitalization.
The number of mergers and acquisitions in wholesale food is strongly linked to economic growth and recession.
There are many ways to value a business. A common method of expressing the value of a business is "a factor x gross annual profit." This factor is also called multiple and another designation for gross annual profit is EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization).
For a wholesale food business, an indicative range of EBITDA multiple of 5.0 to 6.0 is currently used, according to the Brookz Takeover Barometer. The average EBITDA multiple across all SME sectors is 4.90.
The valuation of a business is often the starting point for negotiations between buyer and seller. The outcome of these negotiations is the final sales price. So valuation and price are two different quantities. Besides valuation, the price is also determined by possible scarcity in the market, bargaining power of the parties, the strategic value of the business for the buyer and possible synergy effects for the buyer (cost savings, purchasing advantages).
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Want to buy a business or sell a business in the wholesale sector? With this Brookz Sector Monitor, we want to present buyers and sellers with facts, figures and an outlook that provide insight into the number of transactions, the value development of businesses and the latest trends and developments in the wholesale sector. Because in every buying or selling process, thorough preparation gives peace of mind, overview and structure.
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The number of sole proprietors in the wholesale food business took a hit during the pandemic, but is now approaching pre-pandemic levels again. Of the total number of registered wholesalers, there are relatively many businesses with two or fewer employees.
In figures, the number of wholesalers in 2024 looked as follows(CBS):
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A number of trends and developments will inevitably cause changes over the next few years, but also offer wholesalers in food many growth and acquisition opportunities:
Online shopping is inevitable. For the B2C market, but also for B2B, it plays an increasingly important role. Because unlike consumers, B2B buyers do not store for pleasure, but are specifically looking for a product. Price/quality ratio is much more important here, as is a long-term relationship. For wholesalers, it is therefore important to digitize their traditional processes. Because if you apply digital transformation properly as a business, it will provide a competitive advantage.
More and more supermarkets also supply business customers and distinguish themselves from wholesalers through competitive prices. Consolidation of wholesalers should ensure economies of scale and therefore competitive prices. In addition to scale, wholesalers can distinguish themselves by specializing. These include making packaging materials more sustainable, reducing food waste, improving health, reducing footprint and improving animal welfare.
