An established importer and wholesale distributor of perishable food products, supplying wholesalers and retailers across Canada from an Ontario base. The business has traded under the same ownership and management for more than fifteen years.
Revenue in the most recent completed fiscal year was approximately $9.1 million, up from approximately $6.6 million three years earlier. The company carries no bank debt.
Warehousing, cold storage, handling and loading are purchased as a service on a per-load basis rather than owned. Cost moves with volume, and a buyer inherits no deferred replacement cycle.
What the business does own is harder to replicate. Supplier relationships built over decades in the trade, across multiple facilities in more than one offshore origin country. Its own brands and labels. A federal food import registration, with the audit and traceability record behind it.
The business is run by a single working principal who leads buying, selling and customer relationships, with support from others in the business. The sale is driven by retirement. The principal will remain for whatever period a buyer requires to take the business over confidently, with no limit set on that commitment.
Growth is available without changing the model: additional lines through the existing supplier base, extension of distribution beyond the current core province to all regions of Canada, and expansion of the direct retail account base.
The opportunity suits a food distributor or importer of perishable goods, an operator with existing cold chain and logistics infrastructure that could absorb volume at low marginal cost, or an owner-operator with trade or import experience.
