What Is Your Food & Beverage Business Actually Worth?
Used by founders preparing for sale, growth capital, or succession planning. Get an indicative valuation range, a readiness score, and the three factors most likely to be suppressing your number.
Tell us about the business
These numbers set your base position. All figures are treated as confidential and used only to generate your indicative result.
Most recent full year turnover
Your profit after costs, adding back owner salary above market rate, personal expenses, and any one-off items - the number a buyer will actually assess.
Fixed assets plus current assets minus total liabilities. Found on your balance sheet. Leave blank if unsure.
How is your revenue made up?
This is the most important step. Not all F&B revenue is valued equally - branded product commands a materially different multiple to private label or food service. Move the sliders to reflect your actual revenue split.
Revenue from primary production - farming, growing, rearing, or sourcing raw material. The foundation of the value chain but commands the lowest multiple because margin is thin, volume-dependent, and exposed to commodity pricing and weather risk.
Revenue from transforming raw material into a finished or semi-finished product - cooking, blending, curing, fermenting, pressing, extruding. Adds meaningful value above raw material but multiple is still constrained by customer leverage and the absence of brand premium.
Revenue from packing, filling, or finishing product to a third party's specification - private label for retailers, co-packing for other brands, or contract filling. Structurally low-multiple: the IP sits with the customer, switching risk is high, and margin is competed away on every tender.
Revenue from products sold under your own brand - retail listings, direct-to-consumer, or food service under your name. Commands the highest multiple in the value chain. Brand equity, IP ownership, pricing power, and margin control are all valued by acquirers. A business with meaningful own brand revenue is a fundamentally different asset to one without it.
Revenue from buying and reselling product - distribution, wholesale, or trading. Typically lower-multiple because gross margin is compressed by the cost of the product and the business does not own the IP or brand. Volume can be large but enterprise value per pound of revenue is modest.
Any revenue not captured above - licensing, royalties, food service management fees, ingredient supply, export trading, or ancillary services. Multiple varies significantly by nature; assign here if it does not fit cleanly elsewhere.
How does the business score on what buyers actually assess?
These are the questions every serious acquirer, investor, and lender will ask. Answer honestly - this is for your benefit, not ours.
Do you produce monthly management accounts you trust?
Clean, timely financial information is table stakes. Without it, buyers discount heavily or require extended due diligence at your cost.
Could the business operate for three months without you present?
Founder dependency is one of the most reliable predictors of a suppressed multiple. Buyers either price it in or structure it out through an earn-out.
Does any single customer represent more than 25% of revenue?
In F&B, customer concentration above this threshold is a material valuation risk. A retailer or food service customer with that leverage can negotiate margin and dictate terms - and buyers price that asymmetry.
Has revenue grown in each of the last two financial years?
Growth trajectory directly affects the multiple applied to your EBITDA. A declining or flat revenue line attracts a lower multiple than the same EBITDA with a growth story behind it.
Do you have a management team that could present the business to a buyer without you in the room?
A capable, independently credible leadership team expands the buyer universe and increases the multiple. It is also the single most effective earn-out reduction mechanism available to a seller.
Are your customer contracts documented, signed, and transferable to a new owner?
Relationship-only or undocumented customer arrangements are a significant due diligence risk. A buyer's legal team will find them. A seller's adviser should fix them first.
Is your EBITDA margin stable or improving?
Margin compression - even alongside growing revenue - signals structural pressure in the cost base or pricing position. Buyers treat this as a forward risk and discount accordingly.
Do you have audited or independently reviewed accounts for the last two years?
Unaudited accounts extend due diligence timelines, increase buyer legal costs, and reduce confidence in the numbers. The resulting uncertainty typically translates into a lower price or a more onerous deal structure.
Does the business have recurring or repeat revenue that does not depend on you winning it personally?
Structural recurring revenue - through contracts, platforms, or established supply relationships - commands a premium over relationship-dependent revenue that walks with the founder.
Are your key supplier relationships held by the business rather than by you personally?
Supplier concentration through the founder is treated as a continuity risk. In F&B where ingredient supply is operationally critical, buyers either price this risk in or protect against it through deferred consideration.
Your result is ready.
Enter your details to see your indicative valuation range, readiness score, and the three primary suppressors identified from your answers.
Your F&B Business Valuation - Indicative Result
Deal Readiness Score
Top 3 Value Suppressors
These are the factors most likely to reduce your valuation in a real process - either through a lower multiple, a price chip in due diligence, or a buyer walking away.
What This Tool Does Not Tell You
The indicative range above is deliberately wide. What moves you from the bottom of it to the top - or beyond it - requires a level of analysis this tool cannot provide.
Your precise normalised EBITDA
The number a buyer will actually underwrite - adjusted for owner benefits, one-offs, and non-recurring items - is almost always different from your reported figure.
Who would actually buy your business
Named buyer categories, which trade acquirers are active in your sub-sector right now, and what each type would pay and why.
What is moving the multiple
The specific factors suppressing or expanding the deal multiple for a business with your profile - and what each one is worth in pounds of enterprise value.
Your sequenced exit plan
The right order of actions - capital, acquisitions, operational fixes, timing - to close the gap between your current position and the outcome you want.
The real picture takes four to six weeks to build. The gap it closes is measured in millions.
The Picture
A complete, written exit roadmap - built over four to six weeks - covering where the business stands today, what the destination requires, and the exact sequence of steps to get there.
- Normalised EBITDA with every adjustment shown
- Valuation range in current deal terms with named rationale
- Buyer universe map - who would buy, what they pay, and why
- Value gap analysis - what moves the number and by how much
- The Runway roadmap - your sequenced plan to the exit
- 20–30 page written report plus one-page summary
Guarantee: if the report does not contain a normalised EBITDA, specific valuation range, buyer universe, value gap analysis, and sequenced roadmap - full £20,000 refund. No questions asked.
Want the real buyer view?
Book a confidential 30-minute review of your score. We will walk through what your result means in current deal terms, what is driving the suppressors identified, and what a realistic path forward looks like for your specific business.
Book a Confidential Call →No sales pitch. No obligation. 30 minutes. We review your result before we speak.
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This output is an indicative estimate for planning and illustration purposes only. It does not constitute financial, legal, or professional advice. Actual valuations depend on audited accounts, market conditions, deal structure, buyer appetite, and many factors specific to each business and transaction. The valuation range is based on sector multiples and qualitative adjustments derived from F&B M&A market data and the WARM (Weighted Average Revenue Multiple) methodology. Kelvin Lane Growth Partners recommends independent professional advice before making any decisions based on this output.