How much is a catering company worth?

Short answer: caterers sell at 2.07× SDE in realized sales — low, because the assets are a kitchen lease, a client list and a reputation, and buyers only pay a real multiple for the parts that are contracted. A book of recurring corporate accounts is worth money. A phone that rings because people know the owner is worth less. Run your numbers in the valuation calculator and see the caterers page.

The number

BizBuySell's trailing-five-year closed sales (through Q2 2026) put Catering Companies at 2.07× SDE and 0.45× revenue, median sale price $416,000 — a higher median price than most food trades, on a lower multiple, because catering SDE per business tends to be larger. Size ladder for reference — IBBA Market Pulse, Q2 2026: 2.0× SDE under a $500K price; 2.8× at $500K–$1M; 3.1× at $1M–$2M; 4.8× EBITDA at $2–5M; 5.8× EBITDA at $5–50M.

Public ceiling, borrowed: Damodaran Online's Restaurant/Dining bucket (a proxy for caterers, January 2026) trades at 17.49× EV/EBITDA. Chains and franchisors again. Your buyer's discount is mostly about concentration and transferability, detailed below.

Worked example — shown math, assumptions labeled:

• Revenue (assumption, an established social + corporate caterer): $700,000
• SDE margin (assumption): 22% → SDE = $700,000 × 0.22 = $154,000
• Multiple (BizBuySell realized, catering): 2.07×
• $154,000 × 2.07 = $318,780

Deposits held for future events are not value — that is the client's money and the buyer's future work, and honest books treat it that way.

How buyers actually value a catering company

Buyers sort your book into three grades. Contracted recurring: corporate accounts with standing weekly or monthly orders, school and hospital programs, venue contracts — priced highest. Preferred-list position: being on the preferred or exclusive caterer list at venues that generate weddings and galas; buyers verify the list status in writing with the venue, because 'we work there all the time' is not a contract. One-off social: weddings and parties booked through reputation and referrals — real revenue, but it re-earns itself every year and often follows the owner's name.

Then operations: the commissary or production kitchen — owned, leased with time left, properly permitted, big enough for your peak Saturday, not just your average Tuesday. Event infrastructure matters too: chafing and service ware, vehicles, and a roster of trained on-call staff who are employees or properly classified, with a lead captain who can run an event without the owner. Finally the forward book: signed contracts and deposits for the next 6–12 months, shown event by event.

What raises the price — and what kills it

Raises it: recurring corporate revenue on written agreements; verified preferred or exclusive venue status; a forward book with deposits collected, not promised; a kitchen lease with years left and room to grow; captains and a sales lead who are not the owner; menus costed per event with actual labor tracked.

Kills it: deposits for future weddings already spent on last month's payroll — buyers and their accountants find this, and it poisons the whole deal; one venue or one corporate client as a third of revenue; tastings, quotes and client relationships living in the owner's personal phone; staff paid in cash off the books, which makes your stated margin a work of fiction in both directions.

Move your number

Payments: catering runs on deposits and balances — 50% to book, the rest before or at the event. Card fees and chargeback risk on five-figure weddings are real money; structured deposit links and clean timelines are the Finix payments team's work. Recurring revenue: turning happy one-off clients into annual corporate accounts, and chasing every inquiry and tasting follow-up automatically instead of when you remember, is the ClaroPro team's AI-and-ops play — in catering, the follow-up is the sales department. Systems: proposals, BEOs (banquet event orders), staffing and the forward book in one system a buyer can read turns a reputation into a transferable book; a Nova engineering team can assemble that.

Bring your forward book to the math: run the calculator for caterers.

This is an educational framework with shown math, not an appraisal; a real price is set by a real buyer on a specific day, deposits ledger open on the table. Let the caveats do their job — protecting you, the owner: they keep you from overpaying for a client list that was really one person's friendships, and from underselling contracted accounts that are worth real money. Never invent. Show the math. We're on the side of the business owner.