Fort Lauderdale Food & Beverage Business Sold: What the $2.1B Cheney Bros. Deal Means for South Florida Buyers

The $2.1 Billion Wake-Up Call for South Florida's Food & Beverage Market

Let's start with the headline nobody in Fort Lauderdale's business community is ignoring: Performance Food Group acquired Riviera Beach-based Cheney Bros., Inc. for $2.1 billion in October 2024. That's not a typo. Two-point-one billion dollars for a Florida-based food distribution company.

Now, you might be thinking — "That's a massive corporate deal. What does it have to do with me?" Everything. When a $3.2 billion revenue food distributor with roots in South Florida gets swallowed up by a national giant, it sends a very clear signal about where the smart money sees value in this market.

What the Cheney Bros. Deal Actually Tells You About Fort Lauderdale Right Now

Cheney Brothers wasn't just a company — it was a South Florida institution. Founded in 1925, operating over 1.5 million square feet of distribution space, serving independent restaurants across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. When Performance Food Group paid a premium to acquire it, they weren't just buying trucks and warehouses.

They were buying market access, customer relationships, and regional dominance in one of the fastest-growing food markets in the country.

That's the playbook. And it applies at every level of the market — including yours.

Whether you're running a specialty food distribution route out of Pompano Beach, a high-volume restaurant on Las Olas Boulevard, or a beverage manufacturing operation in Deerfield Beach — the same fundamentals that made Cheney Brothers worth $2.1 billion apply to your business. Customer concentration, recurring revenue, operational systems, and geographic reach.

The Fort Lauderdale F&B Market in 2026: Real Numbers, Real Deals

Here's what the ground-level data looks like right now in Broward County and the surrounding South Florida market:

Mid-market Food & Beverage businesses are trading at 3–4x Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE) for well-documented operations. Businesses with clean books, transferable leases, and strong customer retention are commanding the top of that range — and sometimes exceeding it.

SBA 7(a) loans are the dominant financing vehicle for acquisitions in the $500K–$2M range, with buyers putting down as little as 10% on pre-qualified deals. The SBA lending environment has been friendlier than it's been in years, and Fort Lauderdale's active broker community is taking full advantage.

Seller financing is making a comeback too. Many Fort Lauderdale F&B sellers are now offering 30–50% seller carry, which does two things: it signals confidence in the business's future performance, and it makes the deal dramatically more attractive to qualified buyers who want to preserve working capital post-close.

Who's Buying Fort Lauderdale Food & Beverage Businesses Right Now?

So what does the buyer pool actually look like? It's more diverse than you'd think.

You've got first-time buyers — often former corporate executives or hospitality professionals — who are using SBA loans to acquire established operations with existing cash flow. They're not looking to reinvent the wheel. They want a business that works, a lease that transfers, and a seller who'll stick around for 90 days of training.

Then you've got strategic acquirers — existing F&B operators in Miami, West Palm Beach, or Coral Springs who are looking to expand their footprint into Broward County. For them, an acquisition is faster and cheaper than building from scratch, especially when you factor in the cost of a commercial kitchen build-out or a liquor license transfer.

And then there's private equity. Firms like CREO Capital Partners — a Miami-based PE shop — acquired Bova Fresh, a food procurement and distribution company, in August 2025. That's not an anomaly. PE is actively hunting for platform acquisitions and add-ons in the South Florida F&B space, and they're paying fair multiples for the right businesses.

The Coastal Provisions Group Sale: A Fort Lauderdale Case Study

Let's talk about a deal that closed recently in the Fort Lauderdale market — a specialty food distribution and wholesale operation we'll call Coastal Provisions Group. The business had been operating for over a decade, serving independent restaurants, hotels, and catering companies across Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The seller had built something real: $1.2 million in gross revenue, a loyal customer base with low churn, and a lease on a well-located commercial facility in Fort Lauderdale. But after 12 years, the owner was ready to exit. Classic story — great business, great operator, but the energy for the next chapter just wasn't there.

The deal closed at $1.2 million, structured with a combination of SBA financing and seller carry. The buyer — a regional food service operator expanding from Miami — got a turnkey operation with existing accounts. The seller got a clean exit with a structured payout that rewarded the years of work they'd put in.

That's what a well-run F&B business sale looks like in Fort Lauderdale right now. No drama. No fire sale. Just a fair deal between a motivated seller and a qualified buyer who understood the value of what they were acquiring.

Why Franchise Resales Are Quietly Crushing It in South Florida

Look, here's what nobody tells you about buying a franchise resale in Fort Lauderdale: you're not just buying a business, you're buying a proven system with corporate support baked in.

The Fort Lauderdale market has an active pipeline of franchise resales — Subway locations, fast-casual concepts, specialty food franchises — many of which are priced between $150K and $600K and come with SBA pre-approval already in place. For buyers who want lower risk and faster ramp-up, these deals are genuinely compelling.

Franchise resales in Broward County are outperforming independent acquisitions on one key metric: time to profitability. When you acquire an established franchise location with existing customers and a trained staff, you're not starting from zero. You're inheriting momentum.

What Fort Lauderdale F&B Sellers Need to Know Before They List

If you're thinking about selling your Food & Beverage business in Fort Lauderdale, Aventura, Hollywood, or anywhere in Broward County — here's the real talk.

Your books matter more than your story. Buyers and their lenders are going to scrutinize three years of tax returns, P&Ls, and bank statements. If your financials don't tell a clean story, you're going to leave money on the table — or worse, kill the deal entirely.

Get your lease situation sorted before you go to market. A non-transferable lease or a landlord who won't cooperate is a deal-killer, full stop. Buyers need certainty on occupancy, and lenders won't fund a deal without it.

And please — don't try to time the market perfectly. The Fort Lauderdale F&B market is strong right now. Buyer demand is high, SBA lending is accessible, and valuations are holding. Waiting for "the perfect moment" usually means waiting until conditions change for the worse.

The Real Talk

The $2.1 billion Cheney Brothers deal didn't just make headlines — it validated what smart F&B operators in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and West Palm Beach have known for years: South Florida's food and beverage market is one of the most valuable in the country, and buyers at every level are paying attention.

Whether you're ready to sell, actively looking to acquire, or just trying to understand what your business is worth in today's market — Sun Biz Broker is your team. We specialize in Food & Beverage transactions across South Florida, and we know this market inside and out. Visit sunbizbroker.com to request a confidential business valuation or browse current listings. The right deal is out there — let's find it together.