Manufacturing M&A Is Moving. Know Where Your Business Stands.
Q1 2026 manufacturing deals averaged 7.2x TEV/EBITDA — up half a turn from full-year 2025. Well-prepared businesses with strong financials are averaging 7.9x. The $100M–$250M bracket hit 9.7x. Here's what the data means for you.
Three Things Every Manufacturing Owner Should Understand Right Now
Q1 2026 broke a pattern of hesitation. Here's what shifted — and why it matters regardless of what you're trying to accomplish.
Manufacturing Valuation Multiples — What PE Buyers Are Paying
455 transactions, 2022–YTD 2026. Two views of the data: by deal type and size (Chart 1), and by year to show the current trajectory (Chart 2).
TEV/EBITDA by Size and Deal Type
Buyout multiples scale from 5.8x at $10M–$25M TEV to 8.9x at $100M–$250M. Businesses with all three premium factors (above-avg financials + post-close mgmt + PE/corp seller) averaged 7.9x overall and 9.6x in the $100M–$250M bracket.
| TEV Range | All Deals | Buyouts | Platforms | Add-Ons | Above Avg | All Three* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10M – $25M | 5.9x | 5.8x | 5.6x | 6.2x | 6.1x | 5.6x |
| $25M – $50M | 6.5x | 6.6x | 6.3x | 7.2x | 6.9x | 6.7x |
| $50M – $100M | 7.9x | 8.0x | 7.8x | 9.0x | 8.6x | 8.4x |
| $100M – $250M | 8.8x | 8.9x | 8.9x | 8.4x | 9.4x | 9.6x |
| Total (N=455) | 6.9x | 6.9x | 6.9x | 7.0x | 7.4x | 7.9x |
Source: GF Data® Q1 2026 Manufacturing Drilldown, an ACG® Company. 2022–YTD 2026. TEV/EBITDA multiples shown.
*All Three = buyouts with above-average financials, post-closing management solution, and PE/corporate seller. N=35.
How Multiples Have Moved Year by Year
After slipping to 6.6x in full-year 2025, manufacturing multiples rebounded to 7.2x in Q1 2026. The $100M–$250M bracket hit 9.7x — the strongest reading since 2025's 9.9x peak.
| TEV Range | 2003–2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | YTD 2026 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10M – $25M | 5.6x | 6.2x | 5.4x | 6.2x | 5.7x | 6.1x | 5.7x |
| $25M – $50M | 6.2x | 7.0x | 6.5x | 6.3x | 6.0x | 6.9x | 6.3x |
| $50M – $100M | 7.1x | 8.5x | 7.1x | 8.4x | 7.4x | 6.8x | 7.3x |
| $100M – $250M | 7.8x | 9.0x | 8.6x | 8.2x | 9.9x | 9.7x | 8.0x |
| Total | 6.3x | 7.4x | 6.5x | 7.0x | 6.6x | 7.2x | 6.5x |
| N = | 1,790 | 112 | 106 | 134 | 77 | 26 | 2,245 |
Source: GF Data® Q1 2026 Manufacturing Drilldown, an ACG® Company. All manufacturing transactions. N for 2003–2021 encompasses 19 years of activity.
GF Data® identifies three factors that consistently move the multiple: above-average financial performance, a post-closing management solution, and a PE or corporate seller. Businesses offering all three averaged 7.9x overall and 9.6x in the $100M–$250M TEV range, versus the 8.9x buyout average for that bracket. The gap between a well-prepared transaction and an average one is consistent and measurable across the data — and it widens as deal size increases.
What Buyers and Operators Are Seeing
The data tells one story. The people doing the work add texture.
In food co-manufacturing, the businesses that command the strongest valuations aren't necessarily the biggest, they're the ones with the most reliable capacity utilization and the cleanest customer concentration story. Buyers want to know you're not one customer away from a problem.
CPG brands that have built manufacturing depth, whether proprietary or through strong co-man relationships, are trading at a meaningful premium right now. The acquirer thesis is always about supply chain control. If you've built that, you've built enterprise value.
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Schedule a Confidential ConversationSources: Westlake Securities, GF Data, McKinsey, Pitchbook
