Stone Garden

04 Jan Stone Garden

Wilmington, NC
Sold To: Outdoor Living Supply

What made the business attractive to buyers?

• The buyer group was conducting a roll up of landscape retail stores across the US. One of the managers of Outdoor Living knew the seller from his previous role. He liked the business and its team.
• Willington NC was a fast growing area of new homes, likely to result in demand for their products.

Challenges:

• The landlord. He almost single handily killed the deal with his “what’s in this for me” attitude on transferring the lease.
• The company CPA made a material error on the tax returns which created a lot of extra work for everybody to work through.

Beacon’s Role and Results

The buyer and seller each knew the other well, so finding an interested buyer was not difficult. What was more challenging was the market potentially shifting. During the COVID stay at home period, many homeowners used this time for home improvement projects, which benefited the seller and her bottom line. There was fear post re-opening, customers would spend discretionary funds on other activities and landscaping revenues would suffer. The trick was negotiating a deal with the right level of cash at closing and the right return for the future risk borne by the sell.

Why did the owner want to sell?

To some degree she did not want to sell. Ideally she would have run the business for a few more years and then sold. She had grown the business nicely, had fixed up the location beautifully, and made it a destination location for those looking for higher end outdoor space. Given the activity in her industry she was fearful of both missing the boat on the enhanced multiples and / or having to compete with these conglomerates being formed.

For more information on this transaction or other similar business sales contact:

David Humphrey
Beacon Equity Advisors
781.551.8000

Let Beacon sell your company for you.

About Beacon Equity Advisors – Since 1985 Beacon Equity Advisors, a leading New England Merger & Acquisition (M&A) advisory firm with offices in eight key New England cities, including in Boston, MA Providence, RI and Manchester, NH has represented owners selling closely held distribution businesses. Beacon Equity Advisors’ experience selling value add distribution companies enabled them to tell an engaging story about this Boston, MA area distributor in the M&A marketplace. Highlighting key enterprise attributes enhanced the company’s value as Beacon identified prospective buyers who were able to clearly recognize synergistic opportunities. By matching the right buyer with the right seller, shareholders were able to realize an above market value multiple in the sale of their business in a transaction beneficial for both parties. Beacon represented the Board of Directors and Shareholders in identifying the buyer, negotiating deal terms and brokering the transaction.