Industrial businesses for sale — manufacturing, logistics & supply
Heavy industry, industrial services, equipment rental, automotive suppliers and construction-adjacent businesses across Southern Europe and Japan. The deepest succession opportunity in the SMB market.
Market context
European and Japanese industrial SMBs are the canonical 'silver tsunami' opportunity: ageing owners, profitable cash flows, limited buyer competition. Roll-up theses across machining, industrial services and equipment rental are now well-funded and create a clear secondary market for first acquirers.
Typical opportunities
Industrial workshops, machinery suppliers, automotive Tier-2/3, logistics operators, construction subcontractors. €2–40M revenue, asset-heavy, founder-operated.
Who acquires here
Industrial holdings, search funds, family offices building roll-ups in fragmented industrial niches. Bank financing readily available.
Hot regions for industrials deals
Basque Country, Catalunya, Madrid-Toledo corridor, Valencia.
Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Piemonte — the 'Industrial Quadrilateral'.
Aichi, Osaka prefecture, Tokyo's Ota-ku, Niigata.
What these businesses typically sell for
Asset-heavy balance sheets allow significant senior debt; vendor financing is common for the 20–30% above book value.
From shortlist to closing
- 01Source & shortlist
Filter live deals by country, ticket size and operator profile. We surface the public listing plus a structured memo with the seller's public footprint, registry filings and press history.
- 02Initial outreach (NDA + LOI)
Most listings here are broker-mediated. After NDA, expect a teaser, then a CIM with audited accounts. A non-binding LOI follows once you confirm fit on price, financing and transition.
- 03Due diligence
Financial, tax, legal, commercial and operational DD over 6–10 weeks. For succession deals, retention of the founder for 6–24 months post-close is standard and often a deal-breaker if missing.
- 04SPA & closing
Local notary in ES/IT, judicial scrivener in JP. Expect earn-outs or vendor financing on 30–50% of succession deals where the seller wants tax deferral or a clean transition.
What to verify before you sign
Tier-2/3 suppliers often have one OEM above 40% of revenue. Mitigate via earn-out tied to retention.
Industrial cycles can absorb 15–25% of revenue in WC. Validate seasonal peaks across 36 months.
Italian TFR and Japanese retirement allowances create off-balance-sheet liabilities — quantify before LOI.
Buying a industrials business
- How are these industrial businesses sourced?
- We aggregate listings from official SMB marketplaces in Spain (Bizalia, Negocius, Idealista), Italy (Cherry Acquisition, Bakeca Aziende) and Japan (Tranbi, Batonz, Smergers). Every result links back to the original public listing — we don't re-list, we surface.
- Are asking price and revenue available for every listing?
- When the source publishes them, yes — we extract asking price, revenue and EBITDA into the card. Many succession deals are listed without financials by design; for those we generate an investor memo on demand using the public footprint.
- Can I get alerted when new industrial deals appear?
- Yes. Members get weekly off-market alerts filtered to this category and country. The cache refreshes weekly across all sources.
- Do I need to be in Spain, Italy or Japan to acquire one of these businesses?
- No. Cross-border SMB acquisitions are well-established across all three countries. Spain and Italy welcome EU and non-EU buyers with no restrictions on share purchases. Japan allows 100% foreign ownership of SMBs; the practical bottleneck is local advisors and language, both of which we can introduce members to.
- What's the typical timeline from finding a industrial deal to closing?
- Three to nine months is normal for an off-market succession deal. Listings on official marketplaces tend to move faster (60–120 days) because the seller has already engaged a broker and prepared a teaser. Distressed and court-driven sales follow a fixed calendar set by the auction or insolvency procedure.