Buying an equipment or electronics manufacturer in Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay has 134 established equipment and electronics manufacturers by our count: companies in business at least 15 years that still file with the state every year and aren't part of a larger group. Of those, 78% have been in business 20 years or more. Most will never be listed for sale, and many of their owners have never been asked.
What it takes to own one
Equipment and electronics manufacturers in Tampa Bay come in every size. Here's what owning one could look like at three levels, from a solid company to one of the leaders, with a small business loan covering most of the price.
- Earns about
- $434,000 a year
- Price about
- $1.4 million
- Your cash
- $200,000
- Could pay you
- up to $176,000 a year
- Earns about
- $1.1 million a year
- Price about
- $3.7 million
- Your cash
- $524,000
- Could pay you
- up to $460,000 a year
Earnings are owner earnings: profit plus what the owner pays themselves, before loan payments and taxes. They and the prices are our estimates from public records, not the owners' figures, and we value companies like these at about 3.3 times a year's owner earnings. Your cash covers the down payment and closing costs, and what the business could pay you is what's left after the loan payments and the cushion lenders require. The more cash you bring, the further up you can go.
Age, size and location
Revenue is our estimate from public records, grouped into wide ranges.
| In business | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under 20 years | 30 |
| 20 to 29 years | 47 |
| 30 to 39 years | 32 |
| 40 years or more | 25 |
| Estimated yearly revenue | Companies |
|---|---|
| Under $1M | 17 |
| $1M to $2M | 8 |
| $2M to $4M | 10 |
| $4M to $8M | 13 |
| Over $8M | 15 |
| County | Companies |
|---|---|
| Pinellas | 61 |
| Hillsborough | 39 |
| Polk | 15 |
| Pasco | 8 |
| Hernando | 7 |
| Other counties | 4 |
| Town | Companies |
|---|---|
| Tampa | 26 |
| Clearwater | 14 |
| Largo | 13 |
| Lakeland | 9 |
| Odessa | 7 |
| Brooksville | 5 |
| Oldsmar | 5 |
| Pinellas Park | 5 |
What the best equipment and electronics manufacturers have in common
- Products the company owns, with designs, software and patents documented and in the company's name.
- Customers spread across industries, including some on long-term contracts, so one program ending doesn't empty the order book.
- Repair, spare parts and service work on equipment already in use, which tends to repeat.
- Engineers besides the founder who understand the designs and can support customers.
- Current certifications that customers need: quality systems, safety listings, aerospace or medical standards.
- More than one source for critical parts, or enough stock to ride out shortages.
- Low warranty and return rates that are actually tracked.
- A backlog of firm orders, not just forecasts.
- Products designed so they can be updated when parts are discontinued.
What to check before you buy
- Who owns the designs, software and patents, and whether employees and contractors have signed agreements assigning their work to the company.
- How much of the business rests on a few customers, and contract terms, including warranties and limits on liability.
- Inventory: how old it is, how much is excess or obsolete, and how it's valued.
- Past product liability and warranty claims, and what the company has promised on products already sold.
- Certifications, their next audits, and whether they're tied to the site or to the company.
- How the products are classified for export, and any past export problems.
- Agreements with key engineers, and whether they're likely to stay.
- Parts that will soon be discontinued, and the cost of redesigning around them.
- For a shipyard: the waterfront lease or submerged land lease, Longshore insurance and claims history, and an environmental assessment of the yard.
Questions to ask the owner
- Which products do you own the designs for, and which do you build to customer designs?
- Who besides you understands the core designs?
- What share of sales comes from your top three customers?
- Do you sell to defense, aerospace or medical customers, and what do they require?
- Have you had any product recalls, failures or liability claims?
- Which parts are hardest to get, and who else makes them?
- Which certifications or registrations will need updating after a sale?
- For a shipyard: who are your main customers, and how do you handle Longshore insurance?
To learn what these companies do, which licenses they need and how ownership works, read our full guide to buying an equipment or electronics manufacturer in Florida.
Owning a company in Tampa Bay
The local economy
Tampa Bay, as we draw it, runs from Citrus County south through Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough, and east into Polk: Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Brandon, Wesley Chapel, Brooksville, Inverness, Lakeland and Winter Haven. Tampa is the business center, with Port Tampa Bay, Tampa International Airport, the University of South Florida and MacDill Air Force Base, home to the headquarters of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. Financial services, insurance and health care employ many people, and the Gulf beaches of Pinellas bring tourists and seasonal residents.
Polk County sits on Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando and has become a center for warehouses and distribution, alongside its older citrus and phosphate industries. To the north, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus are more suburban and rural, with many retirees. Home service companies, the building trades, medical practices and auto businesses all have a deep customer base across the region.
What's different about owning a company here
Hurricane Helene's storm surge in September 2024 and Hurricane Milton two weeks later both hit the region hard. Flood zones and insurance costs now matter in any deal near the water. Ask how the business came through those storms, what it claimed, and whether its building sits in a flood zone.
The labor market is deep by Florida standards, though skilled tradespeople can still be hard to find. New homes have pushed north and east into Pasco and eastern Hillsborough, and along Interstate 4 in Polk, bringing demand for services with them. Coastal Pinellas is more seasonal than inland Tampa or Lakeland. The bay itself shapes a service company's territory: crossing a bridge at rush hour can turn a short distance into a long drive, so look at where the customers actually are.