How much is a commercial refrigeration business worth?

Short answer: there is no verified trade-specific realized multiple for refrigeration contractors in the data we use, so this page uses category data and labels it. What buyers actually pay for is simpler than the multiple: contracted service for supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants that cannot let a case go warm — plus the certified techs who can keep a rack running at 2am. The math is below. See the Refrigeration page, then run your numbers in the valuation calculator.

The number

Stated plainly: refrigeration has no verified trade-specific realized SDE multiple in BizBuySell's trailing-five-year closed-sales data (Q3 2021 through Q2 2026) that we can quote for this trade alone. Do not let anyone sell you one without a source. The working frame is the IBBA Market Pulse size ladder (Q2 2026) — category data, and size moves the multiple more than almost anything: 2.0× SDE for prices under $500K, 2.8× at $500K–$1M, 3.1× at $1M–$2M, 4.8× EBITDA at $2–5M, and 5.8× EBITDA at $5–50M. The public-comp anchor, labeled as a proxy: Business & Consumer Services at 14.26× EBITDA (Damodaran Online, January 2026). There are no public refrigeration contractors like yours; that is the buyer's opportunity-cost yardstick, not your price.

Worked example. Assume, as an assumption to replace with your books: revenue of $1,100,000 and an SDE margin of 20%. Line by line: $1,100,000 × 20% = $220,000 of SDE. On the first ladder rung: $220,000 × 2.0 = $440,000. A starting estimate of roughly $440K — with contracted accounts and certified bench depth arguing for more, as the next section shows.

How buyers actually value a refrigeration business

Refrigeration buyers price downtime risk transferred. A supermarket with a warm case is losing product by the hour, so the valuable asset is a service contract that promises response times — and a track record of meeting them. Buyers list your accounts by type: supermarket racks and walk-ins, convenience-store cases and ice machines, restaurant reach-ins, cold storage. Contracted preventive maintenance with leak checks is worth more than the same revenue in emergency calls, because emergency work can leave with one phone call and contracted work renews.

Then the compliance layer, which is specific to this trade. Work on regulated refrigerants requires EPA Section 608 certified technicians — Universal certification is the full credential — and leak-repair and recordkeeping rules follow the equipment. A shop with documented refrigerant logs, certified techs across the roster, and clean records is financeable. A shop where one senior tech holds the Universal certification and the logs live in a truck cab is a risk the buyer prices down. Parts and refrigerant inventory, recovery equipment, and an after-hours rotation that does not depend on the owner complete the picture.

What raises the price — and what kills it

Raises it:

• Multi-location accounts under written service agreements, spread across grocery, convenience, and food service so no single chain decides your year.
• Several EPA 608 Universal techs and a real on-call rotation — coverage a buyer does not have to rebuild.
• Documented leak, repair, and refrigerant records that survive an audit.
• Preventive-maintenance routes that produce repair and replacement work at known margins.

Kills it:

• One grocery chain at half your revenue, on a handshake, renewable at their convenience.
• The only rack-system expert is you — or one tech who has not taken a vacation in three years.
• Emergency-only revenue: high this year, unprovable next year.
• Refrigerant compliance gaps. In this trade, missing paperwork is not sloppy; it is liability the buyer inherits.

Move your number

Margin: emergency invoices paid 45 days late by chain accounts, and card fees on five-figure compressor work, come straight out of SDE. The Finix payments team works on card-on-file for contract accounts, ACH for the big balances, and same-day invoicing from the tech's phone. Recurring revenue: convert your best emergency accounts into maintenance agreements with scheduled leak inspections — the ClaroPro team builds the answering, reminder, and renewal operations with AI, so agreements renew without the owner chasing them. Systems: refrigerant logs, asset histories by store, and contract records in software a buyer's diligence team can read — that documentation build is work for a Nova engineering team. Start with the number itself: the calculator, prefilled for refrigeration.

This is an educational framework with the math shown, not an appraisal and not a statement of fair market value, and the multiples here are category data, labeled as such. A real price is set by a real buyer on a specific day. These caveats protect you, the owner — from overpaying for emergency revenue that will not repeat, from underselling contracted accounts that will, and from a deal that collapses when the refrigerant records get read. We put the limits in writing because they are your shield in a negotiation, not ours.