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What food plants with $10,000,000 to $300,000,000 in sales keep, where our sold-deal data stops, and what a buyer checks at each size.
Figures: IRS tax year 2023Census through June 2026GF Data through Q3 2025Market Pulse through Q2 2026Read November 12, 2026
The short answer: food manufacturing S corporations reported 5.7%[1] of sales as business profit in tax year 2023, by our math on IRS figures for every size, and 8.4% before interest, depreciation and amortization. That's under the 9.1% for all S corporations with $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 in sales[2]. At 8.4%, a made-up plant with $30,000,000 in sales makes $2,520,000, which our sold-deal data puts at $10,080,000 to $14,616,000. Buyers then ask how much of it repeats.
The first figure is what food manufacturing S corporations reported to the IRS as business profit, as a share of what they took in, before the owners' own income tax. It's every one of them taken together, losses included, so it isn't the middle company.
The second adds back interest, depreciation and amortization, by our math on the same IRS lines. That's close to the EBITDA a buyer prices: yearly profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The IRS sorts its size rows by business receipts, which this page calls sales.
Food runs below manufacturing as a whole and below all S corporations with $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 in sales, and a little above the two larger size rows. Here they are side by side.
| Group | Business profit on tax returns | Before interest, depreciation and amortization |
|---|---|---|
| Food manufacturing all sizes | 5.7% | 8.4%* |
| Manufacturing all sizes | 9.0% | 11.7% |
| $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 | 7.3% | 9.1% |
| $50,000,000 to $250,000,000 | 6.1% | 8.0% |
| $250,000,000 or more | 5.9% | 8.2% |
* Includes gains on selling equipment, which the IRS doesn't publish for this industry.
Sorted by business receipts, which this page calls sales. Before interest, depreciation and amortization = (business profit + interest + depreciation + amortization − net gains on selling equipment) ÷ total receipts, by our math on IRS figures.[1][2]
Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Tax Year 2023[1]; IRS Statistics of Income, Tax Year 2023, released September 2026[2]. Industry rows cover every size of company. Size rows mix every industry.
Three things: the IRS size row a company falls in, whether the sold-deal data behind our calculator reaches its profit, and who buys. Each size below is a made-up plant at the food rate of 8.4%. The IRS stopped publishing industry and size together after tax year 2013, so the food rate is for every size.
Our sold-deal data is IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse[4]. Above $5,000,000 of sale price it has one group for all industries together, and it stops at companies that sold for $50,000,000. Where a line says what buyers check, that's our practice, not a published study.
| Sales | IRS size row | Made-up EBITDA | Our sold-deal data |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000,000Under one SBA loan | 9.1%, $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 | $840,000 | $2,605,152 to $4,298,501 |
| $20,000,000Past one SBA loan | 9.1%, $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 | $1,680,000 | $6,280,380 to $9,039,690 |
| $30,000,000Priced on EBITDA | 9.1%, $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 | $2,520,000 | $10,080,000 to $14,616,000 |
| $50,000,000Next IRS size band | 8.0%, $50,000,000 to $250,000,000 | $4,200,000 | $16,800,000 to $24,360,000 |
| $100,000,000Just inside our data | 8.0%, $50,000,000 to $250,000,000 | $8,400,000 | $33,600,000 to $48,720,000 |
| $200,000,000Past our data | 8.0%, $50,000,000 to $250,000,000 | $16,800,000 | Past our data |
| $300,000,000IRS top band | 8.2%, $250,000,000 or more | $25,200,000 | Past our data |
Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Tax Year 2023, released September 2026[2]; IRS Statistics of Income, Tax Year 2023[1]; IBBA and M&A Source, Second quarter of 2026[4]. Made-up examples at the IRS food rate of 8.4%. Our figures checked November 2, 2026.
A food plant with $10,000,000 in sales that earns the IRS food rate, 8.4%, makes $840,000 a year before interest, depreciation and amortization. In this made-up case, the sold-deal data behind our calculator puts it at $2,605,152 to $4,298,501, on owner's earnings.[1]
Owner's earnings means profit with the owner's own pay added back. At this size a buyer often steps into the owner's job, so that's the figure they price. The whole range sits under the $5,000,000[5] top of one SBA 7(a) loan. So a buyer borrowing with SBA backing can reach it, putting in at least 10%[6] of the price themselves.
An ESOP, a trust that buys shares for the people who work there, is a harder fit. NCEO says companies with fewer than 20 to 30 employees and $1,000,000 of EBITDA aren't good candidates[7]. This made-up plant makes less than that.
In our practice, a buyer here asks first for your latest third-party food safety audit and any recall. Then: who holds the recipes and the grocery buyer relationships, if it isn't you.
Across every industry: what a company with $10,000,000 in sales is worth.
A made-up plant with $20,000,000 in sales at the food rate of 8.4% makes $1,680,000. Our sold-deal data puts that at $6,280,380 to $9,039,690, on a blend of owner's earnings and EBITDA, so the price is now past what one SBA loan can carry.[1]
At this price the buyer is more often a company that makes something close to what you make, or a fund. A fund may buy you as an add-on: a company bought to join one it already owns. Many offers hold part of the price back as an earnout, money paid later only if targets are met. In SRS Acquiom's data, 35%[8] of deals paying $25,000,000 or less at closing had one.
Expect a quality of earnings report: an outside accountant's test of your earnings and add-backs. A lender backing an SBA loan must get one on purchases of $3,000,000[6] or more.
Customer mix shows up now, in our practice. If one grocery chain or one co-pack customer buys a large share, a buyer asks for the contract and its price terms. They also ask about your trade spend: what you pay retailers for promotions and shelf space.
Across every industry: what a company with $20,000,000 in sales is worth.
At $30,000,000 in sales and 8.4%, a made-up food plant makes $2,520,000. Our sold-deal data puts that at $10,080,000 to $14,616,000, now priced on EBITDA rather than on the owner's earnings.[1]
Census figures for food manufacturers with under $50,000,000 of assets show a 5.5%[3] operating margin over the four quarters to June 2026, public and private together. Add back depreciation and it's 7.8%, close to the IRS figure.
This is about where private equity funds start to look at a company as a platform: a fund's first company in an industry. One accounting firm's price list puts a buyer's quality of earnings report on a $15,000,000 to $75,000,000 deal at $45,000 to $90,000[9], with one ordered by the seller 10% to 30% higher.
A buyer planning growth also reads your capacity, in our practice. That's how full the lines run, and what a new shift or line would cost.
Across every industry: what a company with $30,000,000 in sales is worth.
At $50,000,000 of sales a food plant moves up an IRS band, to $50,000,000 to $250,000,000, whose S corporations reported 8.0% before interest, depreciation and amortization. Food's own rate is 8.4%, so a made-up plant this size makes $4,200,000, which our sold-deal data puts at $16,800,000 to $24,360,000.[1]
Food's own rate now sits above the size row. In the $10,000,000 to $50,000,000 band it sat below. Both size rows mix every industry, so read them as context for a food plant, not a test of one.
Some buyers at this size buy reps and warranties insurance: a policy that pays the buyer if your written promises about the company prove wrong. Lockton says policies are often available at company values as low as $10,000,000[10]. It changes the money held back after closing. SRS Acquiom's median escrow for claims was 10.0%[11] of deal value without the insurance and 0.35% with it.
At this size a buyer's food safety and quality people usually walk the plant, in our experience. Have the audit history, supplier approvals and allergen controls written down before they come.
Across every industry: what a company with $50,000,000 in sales is worth.
At the food rate of 8.4%, a made-up plant with $100,000,000 in sales makes $8,400,000. That's just inside our sold-deal data, which puts it at $33,600,000 to $48,720,000. A margin above about 8.6% on this size would be past it.[1]
Of the plants we write about, food is the one whose IRS rate keeps a $100,000,000 company inside our data. Metal fabrication and machinery run higher margins, so the same sales put them past it.
Earnouts tend to pay more on bigger deals. Where anything was paid, SRS Acquiom found earnouts paid a median 43 cents[12] on the dollar in deals of $50,000,000 or less, and 67 cents above that.
If you sell under your own brand, it gets its own look, in our practice. A buyer asks who owns the trademarks, and how much of your sales go out under your label rather than a customer's.
Across every industry: what a company with $100,000,000 in sales is worth.
Even at food's thin margin, a $200,000,000 plant is past our data. At 8.4%, a made-up plant this size makes $16,800,000, about twice the profit our sold-deal data can price, so we print no figure of ours. Below are other publishers' figures, and the next step is a call with a dedicated advisor.[1]
The IRS row for $50,000,000 to $250,000,000 still applies, at 8.0%. But its average company had $94,842,918[2] in sales, under half of yours.
Other publishers' figures, not ours
| Company value | Multiple of EBITDA | Statistic | Buyers | Period | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000,000 to $250,000,000Near yours | 10.0x | Average | Private equity, platform buyouts | Through the third quarter of 2025 | GF Data[13] |
| $100,000,000 to $500,000,000 | 9.8x against 7.0x under $100,000,000 | Average | Private equity, platform buyouts | Through the third quarter of 2025 | GF Data[13] |
| $200,000,000 to $500,000,000 | 11.4x | Median | All buyers | Twelve months to March 31, 2026 | TagniFi[14] |
These figures come from outside reports, not from BridgeBook's own data: each one counts different deals in its own way, so read them as a guide to the market, not as a price for your company.
At this size the sale runs in rounds, and buyers judge your managers as much as your numbers. The buyer's written offer, mostly not binding, is called a letter of intent. PCE, an investment bank, says: before the letter of intent, buyers judge the leadership team, the growth plan, the culture and how deep the operation runs.[15] Many deals then sign first and close later. SRS Acquiom counted 59%[11] of 2024 deals that way.
Strategic buyers, larger food companies in or near your categories, often set your plant beside their own. In our practice they ask about line speeds, labor per case and where your plant would fit in their network. Book a call to talk it through.
Across every industry: what a company with $200,000,000 in sales is worth.
A food plant with $300,000,000 in sales sits in the IRS top band, $250,000,000 or more, where S corporations reported 8.2% before interest, depreciation and amortization. That's close to the food rate itself, 8.4%. At that rate a made-up plant makes $25,200,000, nearly three times what our sold-deal data can price, so we don't put a figure on it.[1]
Public food processors, far larger companies, ran 15.3%[16] EBITDA to sales in Aswath Damodaran's January 2026 data at NYU Stern. It's an outside reference, not a yardstick for a private plant.
Other publishers' figures, not ours
| Company value | Multiple of EBITDA | Statistic | Buyers | Period | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $100,000,000 to $250,000,000Near yours | 10.0x | Average | Private equity, platform buyouts | Through the third quarter of 2025 | GF Data[13] |
| $50,000,000 to $200,000,000 | 9.0x | Median | All buyers | Twelve months to March 31, 2026 | TagniFi[14] |
| $200,000,000 to $500,000,000Near yours | 11.4x | Median | All buyers | Twelve months to March 31, 2026 | TagniFi[14] |
A fund that buys at this size plans to sell again. PitchBook puts the median hold at 6.4 years[17] before a sale in 2025, so ask what the fund plans for year five, and for you. Some buyers are companies your own size: in Citizens' survey of companies with $25,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 in revenue, 61%[18] saw themselves as possible buyers.
Our sold-deal data doesn't reach this size, so the honest first step is a call. Book a call about who'd buy a plant like yours and how the sale would run.
Across every industry: what a company with $300,000,000 in sales is worth.
Whether the profit is safe from one bad audit, one lost customer or one jump in ingredient costs. This list is our own practice, not a published study.
Margin first, then how much of it repeats. A plant running above the food rate of 8.4% has room a buyer can see. One running well under it gets asked why before anything else. This list is our view, not a study.
Why bigger deals tend to carry bigger multiples is its own question. Here's what we know about it.
TagniFi, a deal database, publishes multiples for manufacturing as a whole by deal size. Its tables have no food row. A multiple is the price divided by a year of EBITDA. Its figures are below, as TagniFi reports them.
Other publishers' figures, not ours
| Company value | Multiple of EBITDA | Statistic | Buyers | Period | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000,000 to $50,000,000, manufacturing | 7.3x | Median | All buyers | Twelve months to March 31, 2026 | TagniFi[14] |
| $50,000,000 to $200,000,000, manufacturing | 10.0x | Median | All buyers | Twelve months to March 31, 2026 | TagniFi[14] |
These figures come from outside reports, not from BridgeBook's own data: each one counts different deals in its own way, so read them as a guide to the market, not as a price for your company.
Source: TagniFi, Twelve months to March 31, 2026[14].
Those are other publishers' figures, sorted by what companies sold for, not by sales. We don't hold a food figure of our own at this size, so we don't print one.
A made-up example: two plants each have $40,000,000 in sales. One runs at the food rate of 8.4%, which gives $3,360,000 of EBITDA. The other runs at the IRS rate for manufacturing as a whole, 11.7%, which gives $4,680,000.
Our sold-deal data puts the first at $13,440,000 to $19,488,000 and the second at $18,720,000 to $27,144,000. The typical figures sit $6,468,000 apart, on the same sales. Put in your own sales and margin below.
Industry: Food manufacturing
IRS, food manufacturing S corporations of every size, tax year 2023, our math. Change it to yours. Includes gains on selling equipment, which the IRS doesn't publish for this industry.
A made-up example at the IRS rate
A made-up example: 8.4% of $30,000,000 in yearly sales. EBITDA is yearly profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Our sold-deal data puts that EBITDA at
$10,080,000 to $14,616,000
Typical $12,348,000, priced on EBITDA.
IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse, closed deals of $5,000,000 to $50,000,000. Typical is the middle of its recent readings. Our figures checked November 2, 2026.
Other publishers' figures, not ours
| Company value | Multiple of EBITDA | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000,000 to $25,000,000Near yours | 5.9x | GF Data, average, through the third quarter of 2025 |
| $25,000,000 to $50,000,000 | 6.6x | GF Data, average, through the third quarter of 2025 |
| $50,000,000 to $100,000,000 | 8.7x | GF Data, average, through the third quarter of 2025 |
| $100,000,000 to $250,000,000 | 10.0x | GF Data, average, through the third quarter of 2025 |
| $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 | 5.5x | TagniFi, median, twelve months to March 31, 2026 |
| $10,000,000 to $50,000,000Near yours | 7.3x | TagniFi, median, twelve months to March 31, 2026 |
| $50,000,000 to $200,000,000 | 9.0x | TagniFi, median, twelve months to March 31, 2026 |
| $200,000,000 to $500,000,000 | 11.4x | TagniFi, median, twelve months to March 31, 2026 |
These figures come from outside reports, not from BridgeBook's own data: each one counts different deals in its own way, so read them as a guide to the market, not as a price for your company.
At this profit you can book a call with a dedicated advisor.
The valuation asks your sales and profit again, then your name, email and cell phone, and shows a range.
On a first call, your dedicated advisor goes through your numbers with you and, if you like, your controller. In a food plant, four things come first.
Then your advisor tells you what the sold-deal data says about your profit, or says plainly that your size is past it. Often the number is lower than an owner hopes. It's the one a buyer's accountants will test.
A food plant with $10,000,000 in sales that earns the IRS food rate, 8.4%, makes $840,000 a year before interest, depreciation and amortization. In this made-up case, the sold-deal data behind our calculator puts it at $2,605,152 to $4,298,501, on owner's earnings.
A made-up plant with $20,000,000 in sales at the food rate of 8.4% makes $1,680,000. Our sold-deal data puts that at $6,280,380 to $9,039,690, on a blend of owner's earnings and EBITDA, so the price is now past what one SBA loan can carry.
At $30,000,000 in sales and 8.4%, a made-up food plant makes $2,520,000. Our sold-deal data puts that at $10,080,000 to $14,616,000, now priced on EBITDA rather than on the owner's earnings.
At $50,000,000 of sales a food plant moves up an IRS band, to $50,000,000 to $250,000,000, whose S corporations reported 8.0% before interest, depreciation and amortization. Food's own rate is 8.4%, so a made-up plant this size makes $4,200,000, which our sold-deal data puts at $16,800,000 to $24,360,000.
At the food rate of 8.4%, a made-up plant with $100,000,000 in sales makes $8,400,000. That's just inside our sold-deal data, which puts it at $33,600,000 to $48,720,000. A margin above about 8.6% on this size would be past it.
Even at food's thin margin, a $200,000,000 plant is past our data. At 8.4%, a made-up plant this size makes $16,800,000, about twice the profit our sold-deal data can price, so we print no figure of ours. Below are other publishers' figures, and the next step is a call with a dedicated advisor.
A food plant with $300,000,000 in sales sits in the IRS top band, $250,000,000 or more, where S corporations reported 8.2% before interest, depreciation and amortization. That's close to the food rate itself, 8.4%. At that rate a made-up plant makes $25,200,000, nearly three times what our sold-deal data can price, so we don't put a figure on it.
Food manufacturing S corporations reported about 8.4% before interest, depreciation and amortization in tax year 2023, by our math on IRS figures for every size. That figure includes gains on selling equipment. A well-run plant should beat it.
More for manufacturers: selling a larger manufacturer and who buys a company your size.
The sold-deal data behind our calculator: IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse, closed deals. Our figures checked November 2, 2026.
Percentages are BridgeBook's arithmetic on the IRS dollar figures.
Outside figures are other publishers', named and dated, and they don't feed our calculator. How we use outside figures
The valuation starts with food manufacturing picked. It asks a few short questions, your sales and profit among them, then your name, email and cell phone, and shows a range, not one number.
Your exit credit comes off our success fee at closing and grows with your yearly sales: $5,000 under $5,000,000 in sales ($2,500 for your valuation report, plus $2,500 for your advisor call or for starting your listing), up to $50,000 at $100,000,000 or more.
Get an initial range and a clearer starting point for your plans.
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