Sell a Multi-Unit Restaurants business

Owner-operator multi-unit restaurants businesses trade at 2.5x–4.5x SDE for typical $500K–$3M SDE ranges. At $3M+ EBITDA scale the same operators sell at 4.5x–8x EBITDA. Multiples in this category are ebitda-based and data-sourced from Pitchbook CPG Report Q4 2024 + Consumer Growth Report 2025. Where you land in the range is driven by growth trajectory, revenue mix, customer concentration, and management-team depth beyond the owner.

Flynn Restaurant Group, NPC International (post-emergence), Sun Holdings, Fransmart, and PE platforms (Roark Capital, Trive Capital) drive multi-unit consolidation. Active buyer archetypes in consumer products include CPG strategic, Consumer PE, Aggregator / brand roll-up. Which of these bids for your business depends on scale — sub-$1M SDE is typically individual or search-fund territory, $1-3M SDE opens up PE platforms and strategics, and $3M+ EBITDA gets full LMM buyer attention.

Multi-unit restaurant operators with strong same-store-sales trends, franchisee-of-year recognition at their brand, and unit-count above 20 trade at premium — the operating-history and unit-scale are what franchise-M&A buyers pay up for. Beyond the industry-specific factor, the universal drivers in consumer products are omnichannel revenue mix (amazon + dtc + retail); gross margin >45%; cac / ltv ratio evidence of unit-economic durability.

Restaurant labor costs have risen materially above menu-price inflation in most markets; buyers scrutinize your prime-cost discipline and pricing-power history. Buyers in this category also standardly scrutinize marketplace platform concentration (amazon-only businesses discounted) and return rates and quality issues. Addressing these in advance in a well-prepared CIM materially reduces retrade risk during diligence.

Typical transaction range for multi-unit restaurants is $3.0M–$100M in annual revenue. Below that, buyer pool narrows to individual and small-search-fund. Above that, PE platforms and strategics dominate. NAICS code 722511 — buyers screen by NAICS in most deal sources.

From the day you engage a broker to close, expect 6–12 months for a well-prepared business in consumer products. The prep work — financial cleanup, addbacks documentation, key-employee retention agreements, real estate lease sorting — is where 3-6 months of the timeline hides. Starting that early is what separates a full-multiple exit from a discounted one.