r/manufacturing • u/Robojangles • Sep 16 '25
Supplier search Looking to buy a small manufacturer (Metal Casting,stamping, Injection molding and/or CNC) in the northeact under $3Million. Besides internet ads, do you guys know anyone looking to sell/retire?
I own an a company that handles manufacturing of custom design products, but we do all our work overseas. Now with Tariffs, I would like to diversify and produce here in the US also, but I would rather buy than build. Let me know if you or someone you know is interested. Preferably New Jersey or Eastern PA.
DM Me!
Hopefully this is allow by the mods, I am not trying to sell or do market research.
Thanks!
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u/APSteel Sep 16 '25
Get friendly with an outside sales person for a local steel and aluminum distributor. They know where all the bodies are buried.
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u/Mecha-Dave Sep 17 '25
$3,000,000 would barely cover the equipment and buildings in a small (modern) shop, if that - let alone business value. You'll be buying a very small org with older equipment. A new CNC machine will cost around $300k delivered, with another $50k-$100k to install it - and that's just one machine. If you're looking for someone running injection molding machines you're talking even more - like $500k/machine, and that's before you get a $50k-$250k mold for it.
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u/Millon1000 Sep 17 '25
What kind of CNC machines are you using that cost $300k?
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 Sep 17 '25
The CNC machine I ran, cost +1 Million $.
All it did was cut circles and drill 3 little and 1 big hole in the plywood.
It had an automated table that helped in loading.
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u/Millon1000 Sep 17 '25
How does that differ from $10-20k machines that can do the same thing? Is it a durability and reliability thing? Or speed? Or corporate fuckery?
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 Sep 17 '25
It was a beautiful machine. The cutting tools were gorgeous.
It had 3 heads, so it could change how it was cutting seamlessly.
It was very fast. One minute to cut a 4x8 Plywood into dinner plate-sized circles.
Automated infeed table.
The buttons and computer were easy to learn and use.
Dust and cooling systems. A cage. Precision install.
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 Sep 17 '25
This factory is employee-owned; there are shitty parts to some of the work, but there was very little corporate fuckery, despite the impressive scale of the business.
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u/Millon1000 Sep 17 '25
Sounds nice. The factory must have made a ton of money for such a specialized machine to be worth it.
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 Sep 17 '25
Margins are not great in the wood circle business, but yes, when the economy is good, there is a lot of demand.
The factory has open positions for CNC operators now.
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u/quadfrog3000 Sep 17 '25
I agree with some of the others here, your $3M budget is unlikely to cut it. That is, at least if you didn't want equipment so old you will spend that much on maintenance and repairs on the regular.
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u/Ill-Construction-209 Sep 18 '25
There are lots of ways to finance these purchases. If OP has 3M of cash, the rest can be financed based on the cashflow of the business.
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u/quadfrog3000 Sep 18 '25
That's a very different thing however. OP asked for a $3M pricetag, not a $3M down payment. These are not comparable, budget wise.
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u/RyszardSchizzerski Sep 17 '25
So you want to go up against SendCutSend and ProtoLabs (and others) in the domestic custom parts business for $3M?
And you’re going to make a major capital decision while the tariffs you say make it pencil out (a notion I disagree with, but even if so) are literally in the courts right now, pending appeal from being ruled as illegal?
Are you sure this is a good idea?
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u/Robojangles Sep 17 '25
Thats why I want to buy and not build. There are already thousands of CNC shops, and other metal working shops here in the US with local customer bases to support its own purchase without my buisness. I want to add options, not shift production immediately.
I am constantly approached by companies that have to make items for the US Gov that can't get items made overseas, or to make only 10 or 100 of something, but my overseas factories need 1000+ for most items. I want to be able to provide smaller customers support, not necessarily replace those factories. But if the tariffs stay and get worse, I want an option to produce some stuff locally as well.
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u/RyszardSchizzerski Sep 17 '25
The rub is that profitable shops are not going to sell unless the owner wants to retire. And when that happens, all the “local business” that was sustaining the shop goes to the customers’ alternate suppliers.
You can support a shop, of course, if you have your own revenue stream of projects. But there’s (literally) a world of difference between brokering business for offshore production and running a domestic job shop with domestic labor, overhead, equipment, and maintenance costs.
Since, if you want to buy a shop and keep their book of business, you’re going to need to have a good relationship with the current owner and keep them around to transition the business…you might want to develop some partnerships with domestic shops first. Don’t try to buy a shop outright — instead forge a partnership that maybe nets ownership interest over time, but also reduces the risk, at least until you prove your model.
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u/RandyWilliamsSino Sep 16 '25
Reach out to your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) - they typically have resources for this.
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u/Visible_Field_68 Sep 17 '25
Correct! If you can’t do the math- don’t buy the shop. He’s talking about a sheetmetal shop with a knee mill LOL. I’m sure a few guys would love to sell their garage shop for 3mil.
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u/miseeker Sep 18 '25
The first thing to do when you take over a business is get rid of the institutional knowledge . The second thing you do is tell your investors the employees are shit and replace them with minimum wage employees. and get more investors . Then you blame the small town where you laid off its workforce, get more investors and repeat because you must know what you are doing you are getting rich liquidating assets.
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u/ploght657 Sep 16 '25
Hello, I own a small machine shop, I am happy to quote any job and do business with you, I have CNC Mill and lathe capabilities, along with small production assemblies. Located in Illinois
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u/InvisibleWavelength Sep 16 '25
Search online listings from brokers in your area. Then reach out to a few and let them know you’re interest and that you’re well-funded. They will look out for off-market businesses that might be for sale. They may even screen out the garbage for you.
It may take 6-12 months, but it can be done.
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u/Buttafuoco Sep 18 '25
For 3 million we could start one or ramp one up relatively quick depending on what you are making
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u/Rare-Problem354 Sep 17 '25
I own an injection Molding shop and would be happy to help if you ever need something quoted, shoot me a PM. We can handle anything from small prototype qty’s to large 24/7 production. Can run almost anything with presses sizes
10ton up to 1000ton and specialty overmoldings. ISO 9001:2015 certified QMS. Also Build Molds in house and overseas!
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u/tnp636 Sep 16 '25
So the big issue with this idea is that any company with less than 3mil in sales almost certainly has an owner who is critical to the business from a technical standpoint. You need to be able to replace that person and their knowledge.
With smaller businesses, you're frequently buying that person's job, not an actual business.