Sell a manufacturing business in Denver

Colorado’s 26.6-person average under a Denver-Aurora label

Census CBP 2023 counted 5,031 Colorado manufacturing establishments, rank 20, 133,767 jobs, a 26.6-person average, 76.5% under 20, and 0.56% at 500-plus. National context is 284,452 establishments and 68.4% under 20. Those cells are a Colorado state file. They are not a Denver print. BLS CES publishes metro manufacturing employment; this site does not invent a CES cell.

The MSA label Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO is a sourcing word. Statute follows the plant address. A shop whose deed sits in Colorado uses the Colorado sell page. This metro’s research file does not invent a cross-state overlay. The city directory is the map. The state page is the overlay.

Owners who want to sell a manufacturing business still sit in aerospace and electronics, beer and food, fabricated metal, and outdoor-product shops — qualitative clusters only. Do not invent a NAICS split for an Aurora teaser. A north I-25 metal shop and a tech-center-fringe electronics plant share the twentieth-place cell. They do not share a buyer.

Climate series stay in one sentence: August 2026 ISM at 54.6, July 2026 Fed G.17 utilization at 76.0%. Neither print becomes a Front Range premium.

License listing is not a Front Range premium

Colorado brokerage is listed as a license state. Business-broker licensing by state is the comparison page. Jason Taken is a business broker. Counsel confirms whether the 5,031-shop engagement required that listing and whether conveying an Aurora building also needs a real-estate card. The listing is not a multiple. The listing is not “a card finishes the company sale.”

Sellers comparing a Wasatch overlay can read Salt Lake City. That page is a Utah book. It is not a Denver-Aurora letter.

Is north I-25 a different book than the tech-center fringe?

Yes as a packet. No as a statute file. Both seats sit on Colorado cells when the deed is Colorado. North I-25 metal and food carry coatings, unfinished jobs, and wash-down. Tech-center-fringe electronics-adjacent shops carry customer specs. Boulder-fringe files are still a Colorado overlay if the deed is Colorado; they are not a second multiple.

Quiet process still follows how it works: unnamed teaser, NDA, staged room, late customer names, scripted tours. Most of Colorado’s 5,031 shops should stay off a public board. Name Denver-Aurora-Centennial as a region. Do not name the dock.

An Aurora food file that still has the owner as the only estimator needs a replacement-wage recast before anyone talks a Front Range multiple. A north I-25 metal file needs coatings and unfinished jobs in the same memo, not a campus staffing plan a 26.6-person shop cannot carry. Those packets share Colorado’s 5,031-shop row and the license listing. They do not share a CIM. Quiet process still means an unnamed teaser, a staged room, and late customer names. Name Denver-Aurora-Centennial as a region. Do not name the dock or the estimator until counsel says the NDA is enough. The 76.5% under-20 share belongs in that first memo even when the teaser used a mountain.

Aurora and Boulder-fringe process

Name the process before you name the corridor. Manufacturing business valuation does not grow a Denver turn out of Colorado’s 26.6-person average. The 76.5% under-20 share is a small-shop map. That mix is why more files still need a replacement-wage recast and an owner-estimator plan. It is still not a city multiple.

All Appropriate Inquiries come first when dirt or a wet process history is in the deal (Source: EPA / 40 C.F.R. Part 312). Food, beer, and finishing still go to Phase I, then Phase II if the recs say so. ASTM E1527-21 governs the practice window. One-hundred-eighty days is the usual stale date. Environmental transfer is N on the Colorado table. That is not a skip.

Price comes after that honesty. BizBuySell published a 2.75x median manufacturing SDE on roughly $268k discretionary earnings. The same review’s 223-day median is a planning number, not an Aurora promise. Larger files discuss adjusted EBITDA in national bands. Do not blend those rooms because the teaser used a mountain photograph.

Walk the floor after the recast and the serial-level machine list survive a first screen. Skip a customer-audit week. A phone in a north I-25 aisle is how a setup person walks.

Sequencing a small-shop Colorado close

IBBA Q1 2026 found 83% of transactions over $5 million drew three or more offers. Use that as a reason to run more than one buyer type on a rare large aerospace-adjacent file. Operators recast to SDE. Food operators recast to slots. Do not treat the IBBA print as a bid count on a $400k-SDE Aurora shop inside the 76.5% under-20 share.

Open the file when three years of returns, YTD, documented add-backs, and a lien-clean machine list can survive a first screen. Inventory classes belong in the working-capital peg before exclusivity. Quality certificates are access gates even on a 26.6-person average plant. A lapsed card is a customer problem first.

Colorado mini-WARN is listed N. Federal WARN still tests 100 or more full-time employees and a 60-day window (29 U.S.C. § 2101). This page will not invent a Denver headcount. WARN is the longer briefing. A 0.56% 500-plus share is why few Colorado plants trip the federal test — and why you still confirm the facts.

SBA 7(a) still caps at $5 million with a 10% injection under SOP 50 10 8. Standby-note rules are narrow. If an Aurora file cannot live in that box, say so before a searcher spends a quarter.

Front Range M&E tax is MfgEx / Occ. Bulk / successor is F. A Denver CPA writes those exemption sentences. Form 8594 and IRC § 1060 stay federal. North I-25 related-party rent is a second price — put market rent in the recast before anyone talks SDE.

A 26.6-person average and a license listing are the two numbers most sellers skip. They want a Denver multiple. What they have is a small-shop state map plus an engagement question. Write those facts into the first process memo. Leave the multiple off it.

Aurora owners often still hold the real estate and still estimate every job. Put a market rent in the recast before anyone talks SDE. Put a replacement wage in the same recast. Cheap north I-25 rent is a gift to the first letter. Company-plus-plant, company-plus-leaseback, and a third-party landlord are three prices. A $3 million building next to a $900k operating company is not “mostly a Front Range deal” because the teaser used a mountain.

Aerospace-adjacent, beer and food, fabricated metal, and outdoor-product shops carry different packets on the same Colorado cells. Write the process. Do not let the twentieth-place rank merge a Boulder-fringe electronics letter with an Aurora food book. Inventory classes — raw, WIP, finished, consigned, customer-owned tools — belong in the peg before exclusivity. Unfinished first-article hours are not finished goods.

Form 8594 and IRC § 1060 stay federal. Do not let the allocation fight hide the Colorado tax sentences. Occasional-sale treatment on machinery is a CPA sentence. Mini-WARN is N. Federal 100/60 still sits underneath when the facts fit. The 0.56% 500-plus share is why few Colorado plants trip that test — and why you still confirm. Tell employees and customers on a planned day, usually late, with a script. A phone in an Aurora aisle is how a setup person walks.

Counsel confirms the license listing, MfgEx / Occ, and AAI. Treat every number on this page as a published state cell, not a Denver quote. The other door is buy a manufacturing business in Denver. The license listing still decides whether the engagement is counsel-clean. The 26.6-person average still decides whether the recast needs a replacement wage. Aurora food still decides whether wash-down history is in the room. Write those three facts on the CIM cover before anyone photographs a mountain. Colorado’s 76.5% under-20 share and 0.56% 500-plus share are published state cells. They are not Denver headcounts, and this site will not invent a CES print to fill the gap. A 133,767-employee state file is why most teasers are owner-operator shops. That is still not a Front Range turn.

Book a confidential intro call when the recast can travel on a 26.6-person backdrop.