Brewery Business Valuation Benchmarks

Business owners, prospective buyers, and industry investors rely on a diverse set of financial benchmarks to assess the value of a business. We have compiled data from current BizBuySell listings and sold businesses to provide insight into the business for sale market and important benchmarks for pricing and evaluating brewery businesses relative to industry standards.

See also: Bar & Pub Business Valuation Benchmarks

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Highlights of Breweries Sold on BizBuySell

Brewery businesses listed and sold on BizBuySell are comprised primarily of locally owned small craft breweries, usually including restaurant service, tap room, and/or pub component. Many of these businesses also sell beer retail, and rarely larger manufacturers with retail distribution partners are listed.

Brewery Business Transaction Trends

Sale prices of breweries sold on BizBuySell range widely, but the median typically falls around the $300k mark. Many larger breweries that managed the pandemic well sold in 2021 and 2022 to capitalize on a boost in valuations, which drove up the median in those years. Prices returned to "normal" in 2023 and 2024.

Brewery Business Valuation Multiples

Valuation, or pricing, multiples are financial tools that allow for comparisons between businesses that have different levels of revenue and earnings. They represent the sales price of a business relative to its financial performance, and given enough individual business sales data, they represent what the market is willing to pay for a business given its revenue and earnings.

Valuation Trends

Business values and associated multiples fluctuate over time, influenced by a variety of macroeconomic factors such as interest rates, inflation, consumer spending, and overall economic growth. For breweries reported sold on BizBuySell, the average earnings multiple has historically held between 3.3 and 3.8, but fell outside that range 2020 as these businesses struggled with pandemic era disruptions. Since then, the average earnings multiple has returned to typical ranges.

Earnings Multiples

Earnings multiples represent the value of a business relative to its owner’s discretionary earnings or "cash flow". Arguably the most important valuation metric - as seller's discretionary earnings will often dictate how much a buyer is able to borrow to finance the business acquisition - most business valuations hinge on a reasonable earnings multiple.

Revenue Multiples

Revenue multiples represent the value of a business relative to its overall sales or revenue. In conjunction with an earnings analysis, revenue multiples are commonly used to value a business based on its overall sales.

How to Interpret These Multiples

Recent Listings vs. Sold Businesses

We calculate and provide valuation multiples from two sources: Current and recent listings of brewery businesses for sale, and our database of "comparable" businesses sold on BizBuySell. Multiples based on listing data are almost always higher due to owners setting asking prices above what their businesses might typically sell for. This occurs either intentionally as a negotiation strategy, or incidentally due to business owners’ common tendency to overvalue their own businesses.

Multiples based on comparable businesses - "comps" in business broker parlance - are much more useful as they represent the prices at which businesses ultimately get sold. Business brokers and valuation professionals will always turn to local comps when pricing businesses for sale or evaluating businesses for acquisition. We provide both sets of data at the national level to offer general context.

Quartiles, Median, and Average

No two businesses are identical, and as such, valuation multiples exist in a range. We have carved out four common values within this range: Lower quartile represents the value under which the lowest 25% of valuation multiples fell. Upper quartile represents the value above which the highest 25% of multiples fell. Median is the middle of the range, and average is the mean of the set. Mean is almost always higher than the median, driven by a minority of high volume, high value businesses sold at multiples above the upper quartile.

Businesses with consistent financial performance, above average revenue and earnings, demonstrable growth potential, low owner involvement, unique competitive advantages, and a seller willing to finance will command a multiple at or above the upper quartile. Lower volume businesses with thin profit margins, full-time owner involvement, and many direct competitors will trade at or below the lower quartile. Most businesses will fall somewhere in the middle.

Based on this data, half of breweries are worth between 2.38 and 4.34 times their annual seller discretionary earnings, with 25% of well-run, larger breweries trading above this range, and 25% of the smaller, less desirable businesses trading below.

Financial Benchmarks

To determine how a business compares in terms of revenue and earnings relative to industry peers, it’s necessary to have some insight into industry standards. "Benchmarking" describes the practice of comparing a business’s financial performance to typical industry standards to determine where a business falls relative to other businesses in the same industry. These benchmarks can help guide owners and investors towards appropriate valuation multiples from the range above.

To that end, we have aggregated financial ranges useful for comparing an individual brewery business to its peers in the market.

Brewery Revenue and Earnings Trends

Median revenue and earnings of breweries sold on BizBuySell has been volatile over the trailing five years, with significant swings as larger brewery businesses sold just after the height of the pandemic as valuations rose and interest rates fell. In 2023 and 2024, median revenue and earnings fell back to levels more representative of typical small brewery businesses.

Earnings Ranges

Discretionary earnings (used interchangeably with the terms "cash flow" and seller's discretionary earnings or SDE) is often the crux of business valuations, so it is important to benchmark it relative to other brewery businesses traded on the market. Below you will find discretionary earnings ranges of breweries sold over the past five years, as well as recent brewery for sale listings.

Revenue Ranges

Sales volume plays a large role in business valuation, as it measures the size of the potential income opportunity for new ownership. It's not uncommon for buyers to select an earnings multiple range based on overall revenue. The table below includes revenue ranges of breweries sold over the past five years and recent brewery businesses listed for sale.

How Revenue and Earnings Level Affects Business Values

Clearly higher levels of earnings lead to higher valuations, even given the same multiple. However, valuation multiples also tend to rise with business sales volume. Popular breweries that generate higher sales (and maintain reasonable profit margins) tend to sell for earnings multiples on the higher end. So, a brewery with annual sales over $2 million may sell for an earnings multiple over 4, where a smaller brewery with sales below $400k may trade under 2.4 times earnings.

This tendency for higher sales volumes to fetch higher valuation multiples is largely driven by the economics of business acquisition financing. Higher volume businesses give buyers more cushion to cover debt service obligations and still have enough left over to pay the new owner a reasonable income.

Sector Comparisons

For a more complete understanding of the market and valuation standards, consider comparisons within the broader food and beverage service sector when benchmarking brewery businesses. The chart and table below include key metrics from sales of related food service businesses on BizBuySell between 2020 and 2024.

Compared to other businesses in the food service sector, breweries tend to fetch higher earnings multiples, primarily because they also tend to have higher sales volume. One main advantage of brewery businesses compared to others in the sector is the higher barrier to entry. The equipment and expertise necessary to create a successful brewing operation keeps competitors at bay.

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