Companies below about $1M of adjusted EBITDA draw a different buyer pool, mostly individual and SBA-backed buyers rather than private equity platforms, but they sell, and often to excellent owners.
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Most private equity platforms have a minimum below which a transaction does not justify their cost of diligence, commonly around $1M to $2M of EBITDA, though add-on acquisitions to an existing portfolio company can go smaller. Beneath that threshold, the buyers are individuals with search-fund or SBA financing, local strategics, and family offices. Those buyers pay lower multiples but they close, they are frequently willing to take on a company with owner dependence that a fund would reject, and they often keep the workforce and the culture intact. For a smaller manufacturer, a realistic process aimed at the right pool beats an unrealistic one aimed at the wrong one.