East Texas · Texas
Kilgore business brokers and M&A advisors
If selling your Kilgore company is on your mind, MDR & Associates is an M&A advisor that represents the seller from the first valuation to closing day. Kilgore sits where Interstate 20 meets U.S. 259, just south of the Sabine River, and the drive is ours to make, not yours.
The City of Stars and its steel derricks
Kilgore was founded in 1872, when the International–Great Northern Railroad finished its line and chose a new townsite over the existing settlement of New Danville. The town is named for Constantine Buckley Kilgore, who sold the railroad 174 acres. It lies in both Gregg and Rusk counties, in the Piney Woods, and belongs to the Longview metropolitan area.
Oil remade it. After Columbus M. "Dad" Joiner struck oil nearby on October 3, 1930, opening the East Texas Oil Field, the population passed 12,000 by 1936, and in the 1940s more than 1,000 wooden derricks stood in town. Sixty steel replica derricks topped with stars now recall that era and give Kilgore its two nicknames, the Oil Capital of the World and the City of Stars. Kilgore College is a major employer, and the 2020 census counted 13,376 residents.
Kilgore at a glance
- CountyGregg and Rusk counties
- Metro areaLongview
- Companies we sell$3M–$100M
- Typical transaction3–9 months
- Fee if we do not closeNone
What an oil-town company is worth to a buyer today
If your company began in the oil field and has since widened into other work, such as machining, fabrication, industrial repair or mechanical service, that breadth is worth documenting. Buyers discount revenue that swings with drilling and pay more for work that repeats whatever the oil price does.
Buyers in manufacturing and industrial services also look at equipment age and maintenance records, the skill of the shop floor, and whether the owner is the only person customers call. A company that shows all three in good order can attract private equity groups and strategic buyers from well outside Gregg County.
Our approach with Kilgore owners
Before anything formal, you can try the valuation snapshot for a quick range. The next step is a free, private discovery meeting at which we review three years of records and tell you what we think the market would pay. If we take the company on, a principal sits across the table from every buyer on your behalf, and our fee comes out of the proceeds only if a sale closes. We work this way across East Texas.
What we sell in and around Kilgore
Industry decides the buyer, the multiple and the diligence. These are the four sectors we work in most.
Manufacturing
Equipment, real estate, backlog and customer concentration decide what a manufacturer is worth.
How buyers value itHome Services
Plumbing, HVAC, roofing, landscaping and other home service companies — where repeat customers, crews and technicians decide the price.
How buyers value itDistribution & Wholesale
Inventory, working capital and supplier agreements decide what a distributor is worth.
How buyers value itBusiness Services
Recurring revenue and owner dependence separate a two-times business from a six-times business.
How buyers value itStraight answers
Questions Kilgore owners ask before they sell
Answered in full by the advisors who run the sales. Every Texas-wide answer.
The process
How a Kilgore sale runs
Ten steps in four stages, typically three to nine months. Click any step to see it in full.
- Prepare
- Go to market
- Negotiate
- Close
We also work with owners near Kilgore
Questions owners in Kilgore ask
Buyers keep asking whether my Kilgore company depends on oil. How should I answer?
With numbers. Break your revenue into energy and non-energy customers for each of the last three years, and show what happened in a slow drilling year. Buyers accept some exposure to oil; what they discount is exposure they cannot measure. We build that breakdown into the marketing package.
I am thinking of retiring. Can the buyer of my Kilgore company keep my managers in place?
Usually that is exactly what a buyer wants. If you have a manager or two who run daily operations, the company is easier to sell and often worth more. We discuss their roles, and any retention arrangements, with buyers before an offer is accepted, so the people who stay know where they stand.
Talk to an advisor about your Kilgore company
Four fields, a reply the same business day, and nothing shared with anyone. If you would rather talk, call (855) 637-2776.