Chemical books and ship books do not share a kill sheet
Research allows chemicals and refining-adjacent work, shipbuilding, food, and fabricated metal. Confirm any NAICS count before a teaser uses one. A Baton Rouge chemical cell is a waste-handling and scorecard file. A New Orleans yard-adjacent supplier is retentions and coded welders. A Lafayette food plant is spoilage. A Shreveport fabricator is an estimator. They share a 3,044-shop flag. They do not share a Phase II budget.
The national habit lives at Buy a manufacturing business. Sub-sectors keep chemicals apart from food. The owner sequence is the sell page. A Mississippi ship search can sit next to this buybox and still need a different headcount model; read buy a manufacturing business in Mississippi. An Arkansas food search is a thicker large-plant file; see buy a manufacturing business in Arkansas.
Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lafayette, Shreveport, and Lake Charles are sourcing labels. This site does not publish city slugs for them. Employment on the table is 120,360. The under-20 share is 68.2%. The 500-plus share is 1.18%. Those are scale facts. They are not a river multiple.
HedgeStone will not invent listings from the 3,044-shop file. “Any manufacturer between Lake Charles and Shreveport” wastes seller goodwill. Write size band, certificates, a concentration ceiling, whether you will buy the dirt, and the capital path.
| River book | Hidden earnings | Phase II trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical / refining-adjacent | Waste-handling booked as unusual | Solvents, tanks, coatings |
| Ship | Retentions and change orders as run-rate | Yard-adjacent dirt |
| Food | Spoilage and slotting as one-time | Wastewater history |
| Fabricated metal | Capitalized repairs | Finishing line |
Is environmental transfer a holiday on the river?
No. The 2026 table marks env. transfer as N. That N does not retire All Appropriate Inquiries on a wet chemical history. Phase I / Phase II follows ASTM E1527-21 (Source: EPA / 40 C.F.R. Part 312). Coatings, finishing, tanks, and refining-adjacent dirt still get a study. A recycled 2018 cover letter is only a map. Do not treat a clean break room on the Mississippi as current AAI.
How it works still puts paper first. Sales tax is MfgEx / Occ. Bulk / successor is F. Demand a CPA memo in the LOI. “We repealed bulk sales” is incomplete. Mini-WARN is N — still confirm. If the thesis includes a cut or a move at a New Orleans or Baton Rouge site, open WARN when you say it. Federal WARN tests 100 or more full-time employees. Licensing still matters if dirt conveys. Jason Taken brokers the company. The deed needs the other card.
| Capital lane | 39.5-person fit | Kill |
|---|---|---|
| 7(a) | EV plus fees plus peg inside the published box | A peak turnaround year treated as run-rate |
| 504 | Occupied Baton Rouge or Lafayette dirt | A warehouse story on a plant you will not use |
| ABL | Eligible AR | Aged drums a field exam will not advance |
| Equipment | Serialized owned iron | A crane or mill with a hidden lien |
| Seller paper | Stretch after equity | Current-pay interest labeled as injection |
Paying for a 39.5-person Louisiana plant
Published SBA 7(a) terms still show a $5 million maximum and a 10% injection. A Lafayette seller note helps that injection only on full standby and only up to half. 504: $5 million standard, $5.5 million small-manufacturer. Occupancy is a fact.
Food working capital on a Lafayette co-packer is often heavier than a Shreveport job shop’s. Do not model a retailer peg. Chemical WIP is not finished drums sitting on a dock you have not received. Ship retentions are not cash. Write the peg into the letter.
Valuation stays national. Buyer types will not pay a sponsor print for an owner-estimator fabricator inside Louisiana’s 68.2% under-20 share. IBBA Pulse Q1 2026 said 83% of deals over $5 million drew three or more offers (Source: IBBA). That is competition on larger files, not your mandate to stretch a 39.5-person shop.
Retentions, drums, and a Lafayette peg
Quality of earnings on a Louisiana chemical file rebuilds waste-handling costs that were booked as “unusual.” A ship file rebuilds retentions and change orders that were booked as run-rate. A Lafayette food file rebuilds spoilage and slotting as one-time. Tie the recast to tax returns before you fall in love with a river-corridor CIM. If the report kills earnings, the price moves or you walk.
Pull machine serials and UCC filings before anyone stands in a Baton Rouge bay. Three appraisal premises — fair-market, orderly, forced — tell you whether the asking price is earnings or iron. A 25–30% customer on a chemical book or a ship book is structure. I-9 packets and OSHA 300 logs still get opened. Repeat citations are priced on the river the same way they are priced anywhere.
Counsel owns asset versus stock. An asset purchase can leave unknown environmental facts behind and can also force new ISO or customer listings. A stock purchase can keep registrations and can keep cleanup facts you did not escrow. Demand the Phase I clock either way. Do not treat “env. transfer is N” as a structure opinion.
A Lake Charles coatings history and a New Orleans yard-adjacent supplier share the environmental-transfer N cell. They do not share a Phase II budget. Write the study scope before exclusivity.
Coded welders without a Louisiana wage
Louisiana wages are not in the research file. National May 2025 OEWS medians — machinist $58,750, welder $53,750 — belong in the model as backdrop (Source: BLS OEWS). The underwrite is burdened payroll and whether the estimator is the owner. Chemical shops often live on a licensed operator. Ship shops live on coded welders and a second chair who can pass a yard audit. Neither sentence is a union-density percent.
The 39.5-person average is a staffing fact, not a wage. If you need a second shift on a Lake Charles line, price the people you can actually hire. If the thesis includes a cut, open federal WARN when you say it. Louisiana mini-WARN stays N until counsel says otherwise.
BizBuySell’s manufacturing median 2.75x SDE is Main Street (Source: BizBuySell). Staff QoE and Phase I against the 223-day manufacturing median close. ISM August 2026 PMI 54.6 and Fed G.17 July 2026 utilization 76.0% are weather. They do not set a Baton Rouge chemical multiple and they do not fill a 39.5-person ship shop.
Plant visits come after tax returns, the mix schedule, and the machine list survive. You are there to confirm the mill exists, the crane covers the bay, and the WIP cage matches the report. You are not there to announce a sale to a 39.5-person floor.
Jason Taken will pressure-test the buybox and keep the peg and the AAI clock in the letter. We will not invent listings from the 3,044-shop file. We will not hide a wet-process history because the break room was clean. We will not send a 7(a) letter the box cannot carry.
Marketplace teasers create inbound and screenshots. Most river-corridor owners still run a quiet list. A named-yard earn-out can bridge mix. An earn-out stuffed into debt service cannot.
Louisiana counsel plus a CPA, a lender, and qualified environmental and M&E people own the cells. No outcome is guaranteed.
Book a confidential intro call after you can name chemical, ship, food, or metal — and whether the Phase I clock is already in the letter.
Louisiana CBP 2023: 3,044 shops, 120,360 employees, 39.5 average, 68.2% under 20, 1.18% 500-plus. Chemical and ship work around Baton Rouge and the river need environmental honesty even though the ISRA-style cell is N. A Lafayette fabricator is a different letter.
ABS or ISO timing belongs on the wall of a yard-adjacent shop before exclusivity ends. Retentions booked as cash are a QoE rebuild, not a river adjective. Chemical waste-handling booked as “unusual” is a rebuild. Lafayette spoilage booked as one-time is a rebuild. Shreveport capitalized repairs are a rebuild. Four rebuilds. Tie each to tax.
120,360 people on the CBP file is a scale number. It is not a wage and not a union-density percent. Recast the burdened Baton Rouge payroll. A licensed operator on a chemical file and a coded welder on a ship file are named people. A 68.2% under-20 share means the second chair is often missing.
Lake Charles coatings and a New Orleans yard-adjacent supplier share the transfer-act N. They do not share a Phase II dollar amount. Write the scope before exclusivity. MfgEx / Occ still wants a CPA memo. Successor F still wants a clearance plan. A clean break room on the Mississippi is not current AAI.
APA versus SPA is Louisiana counsel’s fork after the Phase I clock is in the letter. We source quietly. We do not invent listings from the 3,044-shop count. Book the intro call when chemical, ship, food, or metal is already named.