Food and machinery on 1,761 Nebraska shops
Census CBP 2023 printed 1,761 Nebraska manufacturing establishments, 104,418 employees, a 59.3 average, 64.5% under 20, and 2.39% at 500-plus. That is a thin map with a real large-plant tail. Confirm headcount. A Kearney machinery shop is not a 500-person food campus.
Research allows qualitative clusters only: food processing, machinery, fabricated metal, chemicals. Sub-sectors keep those packets apart. Buy a manufacturing business is the national pillar. This page is the Nebraska overlay. Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, and Norfolk are sourcing labels.
The sell page is the owner’s voice. Kansas is a batch neighbor with a Wichita aerospace hook. Do not copy that cluster here.
HedgeStone will not invent listings against the 1,761-count file. “Any plant between Norfolk and Kearney” wastes seller goodwill.
The license listing is F — counsel still asks
The 2026 briefing table marks Nebraska’s broker-license cell F / listed. Counsel confirms what that means on the engagement before you lean on the CIM. Business-broker licensing is the briefing. Do not invent a statute name. Jason Taken is the operating-company broker. Nebraska dirt still needs a licensed real-estate broker on the deed.
| Cell | Nebraska posture | Buyer question |
|---|---|---|
| Broker license | F / listed | Did the engagement require a license, and does the broker have it? |
| Env. transfer | N | Phase I / AAI still required if dirt or wet process |
| Sales tax on M&E | MfgEx / Occ | What does the Nebraska CPA say on this conveyance? |
| Bulk / successor | F | Fact-dependent; do not assume a clearance certificate |
| Mini-WARN | N | Federal WARN if facts fit |
Omaha is not Grand Island
Two benches. A 59.3-person shop usually still has an owner who quotes. If you cannot replace that person in Grand Island or Norfolk, the teaser is a brochure. The research file has no Nebraska wage table. National May 2025 OEWS medians — machinist $58,750, welder $53,750 — are backdrop (Source: BLS OEWS). Recast the burdened payroll. Do not invent an Omaha print.
How it works still puts returns before a Lincoln walk. Write process, size band, certificates, concentration ceiling, real-estate stance, and capital path first.
Why lock a Nebraska peg before anyone counts cattle-adjacent inventory?
Because food lots, consigned packaging, and machinery WIP do not share a class, and cycle-count theater is how buyers overpay for rust. Write the peg in the LOI. Name raw, WIP, finished, consigned, and customer-owned tools. Unbilled first-article hours on a machinery file are not finished goods. Physical count at close.
SBA 7(a) for manufacturing acquisitions is the product page. Published 7(a) still shows a $5 million maximum and a 10% injection (Source: SBA). Omaha seller paper is 7(a) equity only on full standby for the whole term and only up to half the injection. A monthly check is leverage.
504 can carry an occupied plant: $5 million standard, $5.5 million small-manufacturer. Occupancy is a fact. Combined programs are not a cash-out on a thin check against a 59.3-person shop.
| Stack | Fits a 1,761-shop file | Dies when |
|---|---|---|
| 7(a) | Operating company inside the published box | Food-campus EV overruns the cap |
| 504 | You occupy the Lincoln or Kearney plant | Empty dirt sold as optional |
| ABL | Eligible AR | Cattle-adjacent WIP the exam kicks |
| Equipment | Owned serialized cells | Hidden liens on a press |
| Seller paper | Honest stretch | Current-pay note called injection |
Phase I supports All Appropriate Inquiries (Source: EPA / 40 C.F.R. Part 312). Phase I and Phase II ESA follows ASTM E1527-21. Transfer-act N is not a skip on a food plant or a chemical bay. Studies stale.
If you later cut or move work, federal WARN tests 100 or more full-time employees. Mini-WARN N. A 59.3-person shop can sit under the federal test. A remnant on the 2.39% 500-plus share may not.
2.39 percent large plants and the 7(a) box
Confirm headcount before you decide whether the published 7(a) product fits. Valuation stays on national size bands. BizBuySell’s manufacturing median 2.75x SDE is Main Street (Source: BizBuySell). Rank 37 is not a sponsor multiple.
Buyer types will not share an Omaha earnings base. A food add-on will not pay campus money for an owner-quoted metal shop. A searcher who imported a services median will miss a 59.3-person machinery book. A 7(a) buyer stops when the published cap cannot carry EV plus fees plus the peg.
Plan QoE and the F / listed license confirm against BizBuySell’s 223-day manufacturing median close (Source: BizBuySell). IBBA’s Q1 2026 83% three-offer print is not a 1,761-shop law. Leave ISM August 2026 PMI 54.6 and Fed G.17 July 2026 utilization 76.0% out of the underwrite.
Post-close in Grand Island or Lincoln: keep the quoters, lock food or machinery accounts, and recount cattle-adjacent lots. The 7(a) math is behind you (Source: SBA). A 59.3-person shop does not run from Eppley.
Pull serials and liens before a Grand Island walk. Appraise FMV, OLV, and FLV separately. When asking EV is basically iron plus a cleaned peg, you are buying a payroll. Concentration above about 25–30% of sales is still structure.
Jason Taken will write food, machinery, metal, or chemicals — then cut Omaha radius language. We will not hide an F / listed license cell because the teaser photographed a full lot.
Nebraska counsel picks APA or SPA. Neither form answers the license listing. Confirm cells locally. No outcome is guaranteed.
An Omaha food campus remnant and a Kearney machinery shop do not share a peg. Food hides cattle-adjacent lots and consigned packaging. Machinery hides unbilled first-article hours. Chemicals hide tank heels. Price those three differently on a 1,761-shop map.
The F / listed license cell is a counsel question on the engagement. If you later move work from Norfolk to Lincoln, federal WARN can still attach even though mini-WARN is N. A 59.3-person shop can sit under 100 full-time employees. A 2.39% large-plant remnant may not. Ask how MfgEx / Occ treats this conveyance. Successor tax is F.
Form 8594 still splits iron and goodwill. You want depreciable cells.
A Grand Island food buyer who copies Kearney machinery quoting will miss lot classes. A Norfolk metal buyer who copies Omaha campus math will miss the 59.3-person average. Write food or machinery. Write the bench. Ask counsel what F / listed means on this engagement. Then count. A 1,761-shop map does not have spare seller goodwill for a radius search. Write the bench. Write the process. Then ask for heads against the 2.39% tail. Occupancy in Lincoln is a 504 fact. Empty dirt sold as optional is not a debenture story on a 59.3-person shop. Write whether you will live in Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, or Norfolk before anyone counts.
Book a confidential intro call after you can name food or machinery and the peg classes.
Norfolk is not Omaha. Kearney is not Lincoln. A 1,761-shop map is thin. “Any plant in Nebraska” wastes the little seller goodwill the file has. Write food or machinery first. Write whether you can staff Grand Island.
Cattle-adjacent inventory still needs a physical count. Machinery first-article hours are not finished goods. Chemical tank heels are not retail. Those three classes do not share a peg exhibit. Freeze the method in the LOI.
The 2.39% 500-plus share is a scale overlay. Confirm heads. A 59.3-person average shop is not a campus. The F / listed license cell is a counsel question on the engagement, not a teaser adjective.
Pull serials before a Norfolk walk. Machinery first-article hours are not food lots. Chemical tank heels are not fabricated-metal raw. Write the class. Physical count at close.
A 1,761-shop map does not have spare seller goodwill. “Any plant in the state” burns it. Write food or machinery, write the metro you will staff, and write whether the 2.39% large-plant tail is the file you are actually buying. Confirm heads.
Ask the Nebraska CPA how MfgEx / Occ treats this conveyance. Successor tax is F. The F / listed license cell is a counsel question on the engagement.
Educational briefing only. Nebraska counsel, a CPA, a lender, and qualified environmental and M&E professionals own the cells. No outcome is guaranteed.
I-80 is not a buybox. Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, and Norfolk are five benches on a 1,761-shop map. Write which one you can staff. Cattle-adjacent lots still need a physical count. Machinery hours still need a class. A 59.3-person shop will not quote itself from Eppley.
Nebraska’s CBP 2023 file counted 1,761 shops, 104,418 employees, a 59.3 average, 64.5% under 20, and 2.39% at 500-plus. License cell is F / listed. Mini-WARN is N. Write the process first.