What’s your tree service & arboriculture business worth? Value it in 90 seconds.
Tree Service & Arboriculture businesses are typically priced on one of two earnings figures depending on size: Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE) below roughly $1M, and EBITDA above. Applied to tree service & arboriculture specifically, the base multiple ranges are 2.75x–4x SDE and 4.5x–6.5x EBITDA. Where inside that range your business trades is decided by a handful of specific, buyer-visible factors.
Every input stays in your browser. The tool benchmarks each KPI against real Main Street peers in your industry, layers per-KPI multiple lifts on top of the category baseline, and shows a live range with the reasons behind it.
The largest independents (Davey Tree, Bartlett Tree Experts) are strategic acquirers; PE-backed SavATree (Charlesbank Capital Partners) has been an aggressive consolidator, and Monster Tree Service (owned by Authority Brands, which is Apax-backed) leads the franchise side. What's changed materially: plant health care (PHC) contracts — recurring soil injections, deep-root fertilization, insect and disease treatment — have turned traditionally lumpy tree-service revenue into subscription-adjacent revenue, and buyers are paying premiums for operators who've built a real PHC book.
What’s your tree service & arboriculture business worth?
Enter the numbers that actually drive tree service & arboriculture valuations. We benchmark each against real Main Street peers and show you where you land.
What moves the multiple
The metrics buyers actually diligence in tree service & arboriculture.
Category baseline is 2.75x–4x SDE (below ~$1M SDE) transitioning to 4.5x–6.5x EBITDA above. Where inside that range a specific tree service & arboriculture business trades is decided by these operating metrics — the same ones a professional QoE surfaces on day one of diligence.
Plant health care (PHC) revenue percentage
Recurring soil injections, deep-root fertilization, insect and disease treatment. This is the single biggest multiple driver in modern tree service — the subscription-adjacent piece of the business.
ISA-certified arborist count
Number of International Society of Arboriculture certified arborists on staff. Certification is a labor-quality and insurance-underwriting proxy that buyers pay premiums for.
Commercial + utility revenue mix
Recurring commercial accounts (property management, HOAs) and utility line-clearance contracts are meaningfully stickier than one-time residential removals.
Fleet composition
Bucket trucks, chippers, stump grinders, and cranes have long depreciation schedules and are diligence-critical. Fleet age and financing status materially affect deal proceeds.
Insurance loss history + safety record
Tree service has the highest workers-comp mod rating in home services. A clean safety record and low experience-mod are worth real basis points on the multiple.
Deal structure norms
How tree service & arboriculture deals actually close.
Sub-$1M SDE deals close as SBA-financed asset sales with heavy focus on fleet valuation and insurance-loss-history transfer. Above $1M EBITDA, competitive processes with strategic and PE bidders are common — especially for operators with 25%+ PHC revenue in strong residential metros. Deals commonly include 18–24 month transition consulting so the seller can facilitate customer-relationship handoff and, in some states, license/certification transfer.
Recurring-revenue anchor for tree service & arboriculture: 25% of revenue is the threshold that meaningfully lifts multiples. Businesses below that trade nearer the baseline low; above it, buyers underwrite at the top of the range.
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People also ask
Valuing a tree service & arboriculture business.
How is my tree service business valued?
Tree service businesses trade at SDE multiples of 2.75–4.0x for owner-operator books below $1M SDE. Above $1M EBITDA, expect 4.5–6.5x — with the top end reserved for operators with 25%+ plant health care revenue, ISA-certified arborist teams, and clean safety records.How much does plant health care revenue actually move the multiple?
Meaningfully. A tree service operator with 30%+ PHC revenue typically trades at 1.0–1.5 turns higher on the EBITDA multiple than a pure removal-and-pruning book. PHC is the subscription-adjacent piece PE platforms are actually paying premiums for.What kills a tree service deal in diligence?
Three things: (1) workers-comp mod rating above 1.2 signals a safety history buyers will price around, (2) an aged fleet with heavy deferred maintenance or open liens depresses proceeds, and (3) reliance on non-certified crews limits buyer interest to lower-tier acquirers who won't pay the premium multiples.Do utility line-clearance contracts add value?
Yes, if they're bid-won and multi-year. Utility contracts are underwritten by strategic acquirers (Wright Tree, Asplundh-adjacent) very differently than residential work — they value clean bid win-rates and demonstrated safety compliance, and they're willing to pay for it.How accurate is this tree service & arboriculture valuation estimate?
It's an initial diagnostic, not a formal appraisal. The engine uses baseline 2.75x–4x SDE / 4.5x–6.5x EBITDA multiples from published Main Street M&A data, then layers per-KPI adjustments using P25–P90 industry benchmarks. What it can't see is qualitative signal — customer-relationship durability, management-team quality, regulatory risk in your niche. Use it to see where your business lands against peers, then let a specialist broker validate against your actual books before you go to market.
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Ready to talk numbers with a human
Validate the estimate with a specialist broker.
Free 30-minute consultation. Sukhrobjon (Rob) Ismoilov or a matched tree service & arboriculture specialist reviews your inputs against the current buyer set.