IATF and OEM concentration belong in the letter
Buy a manufacturing business still wants a written box. Name the process — stamping, machining, weld, plastics, harness, tooling — not “auto.” Name whether IATF, ISO, or AS9100 must be current on Monday. Name a concentration ceiling by legal entity and by platform. Name who owns the tool and who pays when it is out of steel. Name real estate. Name capital.
The Michigan buy page is the statute overlay. This page is the Detroit map under the cities directory. Michigan’s CBP 2023 state file lists 12,192 manufacturing establishments, 604,978 employees, a 49.6-person average, 64.4% under 20, and 1.34% at 500-plus (Source: Census CBP). That is a sourcing map. It is not a reason to underwrite every teaser that lands in the inbox. BLS CES publishes metro employment. This site does not print a CES cell.
A mobility book is a scorecard, not a building. Ask for on-time, PPM, and whether the next launch is priced. A 32% customer can be a 55% platform. Structure that or walk. Sub-sectors keep the search from becoming a county dump.
Downriver plants versus a Troy office park
Downriver plants often carry heavier process history and a release calendar. Troy can be a quoting office with a smaller bay. Warren and Dearborn are other sourcing words. They change commute and sometimes the buyer bench. They do not change Michigan cells. Statute follows the plant address. If a later deed sits outside Michigan, close on that overlay.
How it works puts paper first. Ask for the street on the deed before QoE. National OEWS May 2025 medians — machinist $58,750, welder $53,750 — are backdrop (Source: BLS OEWS). Recast the plant’s burdened payroll. Four names still matter: programmer, estimator, second-shift lead, the person the program manager actually calls.
If two of those names are the seller, you are buying a training period. A mobility book that lives in the owner’s head is a stay conversation before the tour, not a “turnkey” adjective.
Michigan cells a Detroit buyer must confirm
Phase I supports All Appropriate Inquiries even when Part 201 is in the conversation (Source: EPA / 40 C.F.R. Part 312). Phase I and Phase II is the long form. Skipping the study because “it has always been a press shop” is how buyers inherit a tank. Part 201 is disclosure and cleanup liability. It is not a holiday from AAI.
Valuation still starts with size band. BizBuySell’s manufacturing median 2.75x SDE is a Main Street print (Source: BizBuySell). It is not a sponsor print and not a certified-supplier print. Do not apply a 7x EBITDA headline to a $400k-SDE downriver shop.
| Letter clause | Why it belongs on a Detroit file | What fails without it |
|---|---|---|
| Day-one certificates | IATF / ISO access is a customer gate | A “we will recertify after close” speech |
| Platform ceiling | Legal-entity share can hide a whale | A 7(a) model that dies on one program |
| Tool ownership | Customer-owned steel is not collateral | An ABL story the field exam will kick |
| Part 201 + Phase I | Disclosure and AAI are different clocks | A priced tank in month four |
| License posture | Express-coverage cell can taint the CIM | Relying on a packet counsel later rejects |
Business-broker licensing is not only the seller’s problem. If the engagement required a real-estate posture and lacked it, counsel should say so before you rely on the book. Jason Taken is a business broker. Conveying dirt still needs a licensed real-estate broker.
Federal WARN tests 100 or more full-time employees and 60 days. Michigan mini-WARN is N in the 2026 table — still confirm. If you already said you will consolidate, open WARN the week you say it.
What belongs in a Detroit buybox before the plant tour?
Process, certificates, platform ceiling, tool ownership, dirt stance, and capital. “Any manufacturer in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn” is a radius dump. HedgeStone will not spend seller goodwill on that search.
SBA 7(a) for manufacturing acquisitions still shows a $5 million maximum and a 10% change-of-ownership injection under SOP 50 10 8 (Source: SBA). A current-pay note is credit, not equity. 504 still exists for the plant and qualifying heavy M&E. Occupancy is a fact. Tooling the customer owns does not fill a borrowing base.
Write the peg into the LOI. Launch WIP, unbilled PPAP hours, and customer-owned fixtures are where Detroit-area supplier files donate cash. The close count should be physical.
Rival letters will not share a math. A certified add-on pays reportable EBITDA, not an owner who still quotes every launch. A searcher who borrowed a services-study median will misread a thin-margin downriver fabricator. Anyone who needs the 7(a) ceiling exits when fees and the peg shove enterprise value past the box.
Capital path on a mobility-supplier book
The 2025 manufacturing median close ran 223 days (Source: BizBuySell). Put Phase I, a scorecard pull, and QoE on that calendar. Quality of earnings will test whether launch years were treated as run-rate and whether tooling amortization was honest. Add-backs that survive have invoices. If the report kills $400,000 of EBITDA, the price moves or the deal dies.
Pull serials, crash history, and liens before a downriver tour. When orderly liquidation plus cleaned working capital sits next to asking enterprise value, you are buying a payroll attached to iron. Missed rebuilds are chips you take in the letter. ISM PMI 54.6 and Fed capacity 76.0% describe the operating year. They do not re-rate a Wayne County ask.
The first 90 days after the wire are operations. Keep the launch people. Lock the programs you underwrote. Count inventory again. Customer-owned tools stay off your borrowing base. Counsel picks asset versus stock. Releases and tooling ownership still decide whether the book is real.
The sibling Detroit sell page is the owner’s sequence. Jason Taken is a business broker. He will pressure-test the buybox and source quietly. We will not invent listings. Confirm cells with counsel. No outcome is guaranteed.
A downriver release book and a Troy quoting office do not share a Monday roster. Write who holds IATF, who prices the launch, and who the program manager actually calls. If two of those names are the seller, the model needs a hiring plan, not a synergy slide. I-9 files and OSHA 300 logs stay diligence. Repeat citations are priced.
Quality of earnings on a mobility file tests whether launch years were treated as run-rate and whether tooling amortization was honest. On a tooling house it tests lumpy bookings and whether the owner’s overtime was called “one-time.” Add-backs that survive have invoices. Tell the seller in the LOI who pays for the report and how long exclusivity lasts if the report slips. Use the report to test the recast, not to invent a Detroit multiple.
Stanford study medians assume a margin profile most job shops do not have. Do not force a 9% fabricator into that template because a downriver press photographed well. Write the Monday roster before you tour. Climate prints stay weather. They do not become a Wayne County thesis.
If you will not live in the plant, say who the general manager is before anyone drives. Most operators will not relocate for a lease they have not underwritten. Buy a manufacturing business in Grand Rapids is the West Michigan overlay. Flint stays a sourcing label.
Occupancy still matters if 504 is in the stack. A gate photo does not prove the share. Combined 7(a) and 504 capacity is not a stretch story on a thin check. Rates are lender-specific. This page will not invent a prime-plus quote.
Ask for the last three scorecards, the open NCR list, and whether the next launch is priced before you spend QoE money. A 32% legal-entity customer can be a 55% platform. Write the ceiling in the buybox. Structure or walk. Customer-owned tools stay off the borrowing base even when the press photograph is handsome. Part 201 disclosure and AAI are different clocks; demand both on a downriver deed with finishing history.
The 49.6-person Michigan average is a state cell, not a typical Troy plant. Underwrite the actual roster and whether the program manager’s contact is the seller. Express-coverage licensing can taint a CIM you relied on; ask counsel whether the engagement required a real-estate posture before you spend QoE. Warren, Dearborn, Troy, and Downriver remain sourcing words on one Michigan overlay. A Dearborn-adjacent program contact does not change the earnings basis. Price the scorecard and the tool steel, not the zip code. A Troy office with a small bay is still a Michigan file if the deed is in Michigan.
The conversion path is a confidential intro call.