Freight brokerage & 3PL
Non-asset and asset-light. Value turns on carrier network depth, gross margin durability, and how much of the book survives a change of control.
Indicative EV / EBITDA5.5 – 8.0×
Sell-side M&A · Logistics & supply chain
You only sell it once.
Beacon represents the owners of freight, warehousing, and distribution companies in the single most consequential transaction of their working life — and treats it with the gravity that deserves.
Closed transactions
142
Sell-side mandates completed since founding.
Aggregate value
$4.8B
Enterprise value across all closed transactions.
Average uplift
+31%
Final terms against the first indication received.
Completion rate
94%
Of mandates taken to market that reached a close.
The mandate
01 / 05
A generalist banker will learn your business on your money.
Logistics does not value like manufacturing. A buyer paying for your company is underwriting contract tenure, lane density, driver retention, customer concentration, and whether your margin survives a soft freight market. A banker who cannot read a rate deck will not defend those numbers in diligence.
We have worked in this sector and nothing else for seventeen years. We know which strategics are buying, which sponsors have a platform hunting for add-ons, and — just as usefully — which buyers retrade at the eleventh hour.
Our fee is contingent on your close. If the number isn't right, we don't get paid either. That is the whole alignment.
Principals run the deal
The people who pitch you are the people who negotiate. No handoff to an associate after signing.
One valuation, defended
We tell you what the business is worth before you engage — not the number that wins the pitch.
Competition, not a conversation
An unsolicited offer is a negotiation with one party. We build a field, then run it to a deadline.
Six mandates a year
Deliberately few. Capacity is the constraint we protect, because attention is what you're buying.
Where we work
Six corners of a sector most bankers treat as one.
Each carries its own buyer universe, its own diligence traps, and its own multiple. Indicative ranges below reflect middle-market transactions we have observed or executed over the past eighteen months.
Warehousing & distribution
Contract logistics, fulfilment, and public warehousing. Lease structure and square-foot utilisation move the number as much as EBITDA does.
Indicative EV / EBITDA6.5 – 9.5×
Cold chain
Temperature-controlled storage and transport. Scarce, capital-intensive, and the most competitively bid category in the sector today.
Indicative EV / EBITDA8.0 – 11.0×
Final mile & courier
Residential and B2B delivery density. Contractor classification and route economics get the hardest look in diligence.
Indicative EV / EBITDA4.5 – 6.5×
Asset-based trucking
Truckload, LTL, and dedicated fleets. Equipment age, maintenance capex, and driver turnover set the floor on what a buyer will pay.
Indicative EV / EBITDA3.5 – 5.5×
Forwarding & customs
Air, ocean, and brokerage. Licence portfolio, trade-lane mix, and compliance history carry real value to a cross-border acquirer.
Indicative EV / EBITDA6.0 – 8.5×
Ranges are indicative only and describe observed middle-market activity between $3M and $25M of adjusted EBITDA. Actual outcomes vary materially with scale, contract mix, customer concentration, and the composition of the buyer field. Nothing here is a valuation of any business.
Process
03 / 05
Nine months, in five stages, with the dates set before we start.
A sale runs to a calendar or it runs to the buyer's convenience. Below is the schedule we publish to every client at engagement, and the one we hold ourselves to.
01
Valuation & positioning
We normalise three years of earnings, strip the owner's economics out of the P&L, and arrive at a defensible range. You see the number before you commit to anything.
Weeks 1 – 4
02
Preparation
Confidential information memorandum, blind teaser, sell-side quality of earnings, and a data room built so diligence cannot stall. Nothing goes out until it can withstand scrutiny.
Weeks 4 – 10
03
Go to market
A buyer list you approve name by name — strategics, sponsors, and platform add-ons — approached under NDA, managed to a single indication deadline.
Weeks 10 – 18
04
Diligence & negotiation
Management meetings, confirmatory diligence, and the terms that actually decide your proceeds: working capital peg, escrow, earnout, rollover, and indemnity caps.
Weeks 18 – 28
05
Close
Purchase agreement through to funds settled, with your counsel and accountants coordinated by us so the business keeps running while it happens.
Weeks 28 – 36Transactions
04 / 05
Selected closings.
Terms are disclosed only where our client has approved it. References from past sellers are available at the appropriate stage of a conversation.
Harbor Line Cold Storage
Temperature-controlled 3PL · 480,000 sq ft · Pacific Northwest
has been acquired by
Northstar Cold Partners
Sponsor-backed cold chain platform
Exclusive financial advisor to the seller
February 2026
Meridian Freight Group
Non-asset brokerage · $214M revenue · Midwest
has been acquired by
A publicly traded strategic
Name withheld at buyer's request
Exclusive financial advisor to the seller
November 2025
Cardinal Distribution Co.
Contract warehousing · 3 facilities · Ohio Valley
has recapitalised with
Fenwick Industrial
Lower middle-market private equity
Exclusive financial advisor to the company
August 2025
Sable Route Logistics
Final mile & courier · 640 routes · Southeast
has been acquired by
Atlas Last Mile Holdings
National delivery platform
Exclusive financial advisor to the seller
May 2025
Kestrel Forwarding
Air & ocean forwarding · customs brokerage · Gulf Coast
has been acquired by
A European forwarding group
Cross-border strategic acquirer
Exclusive financial advisor to the seller
February 2025
Granite State Carriers
Dedicated truckload · 210 power units · New England
has been acquired by
Longview Transport
Regional asset-based consolidator
Exclusive financial advisor to the seller
October 2024
Confidentiality
Your drivers should hear it from you.
A leak costs more than a bad multiple. Customers begin hedging, competitors start recruiting, and the buyer who was moving quickly suddenly has leverage. Discretion is not a courtesy on our side of the table — it is the deliverable.
You approve every name. No buyer is contacted without your written sign-off, competitors included.
Blind until they sign. Teasers carry no company name, no location, no customer detail.
Meetings off site. Management sessions and buyer tours are scheduled around your operation, never through it.
Staff hear it once it is certain. We help you plan that conversation and the day after it.
Principals
05 / 05
"I have never once met an owner who regretted running a real process. I have met plenty who regretted taking the first call."
Founded Beacon in 2009 after eleven years in transportation coverage at a bulge-bracket bank and two years operating a regional brokerage — the latter being the more useful education. Has personally led every sell-side mandate the firm has accepted since.
Beacon runs with four principals and no junior deal team. Every engagement is staffed by two of them from first valuation to funds settled.
Experience
17 years advising logistics and supply-chain owners exclusively.
Registration
Securities transactions conducted through an unaffiliated FINRA member broker-dealer.
Engagement
Modest retainer, credited in full against a success fee at close.
Capacity
Six mandates accepted per year, across all four principals.
Confidential inquiry
Find out what it's worth before you decide anything.
Send three years of financials and a sentence about what you want out of the next five years. We come back within a week with a valuation range and an honest read on timing — whether or not selling now is the right move. There is no cost and no obligation to engage.
Direct
+1 312 555 0148Offices
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Every inquiry is read by a principal. Nothing you send is shared, stored in a marketing system, or discussed outside the firm.