Fraser Voll·December 20, 2022

Bought a 50 Year Old Commercial Cleaning Business | Fraser Voll

Fraser Voll, a 29-year-old Canadian accountant-turned-M&A-advisor with stints at EY, Constellation Software, and boutique Investment Bank Portage, bought Regional Janitorial Services (RJS) — a 50-year-old commercial cleaning business in Niagara, Ontario — just months after being assigned to it as a Portage sell-side client on his very first day of work. He paid approximately 3x EBITDA (2x upfront, 1x earnout tied to gross profit over two years) for a business doing CAD $2 million in revenue and CAD $600k-$800k in EBITDA, financing the deal with personal savings, a home equity line of credit, and equity from friends. The business had nearly doubled in revenue during COVID, creating a customer concentration risk (two clients = ~50% of revenue) that helped keep the multiple disciplined. Two months post-close, Fraser was focused on building team culture across a dispersed workforce with no common office, promoting internal supervisors, launching a new Regional Maintenance service line using his general manager's construction background, and implementing a website and CRM from scratch. His long-term vision is a full-service facility management brand with sub-lines covering janitorial, maintenance, landscaping, and exterior services.

Deal facts

multiple: 3x EBITDA (2x upfront + 1x earnout)
sde ebitda: CAD $600k-$800k EBITDA (stated as 'sweet spot of 6 to 800,000')
revenue: CAD $2 million (at time of acquisition; was ~$1.2M pre-COVID)
financing structure: ~65-70% equity (personal savings + HELOC + friends/network investors) + tier-one bank debt (~$500k raised in equity)
notes: Earnout tied to gross profit over two years, dollar-for-dollar above a gross profit threshold, capped each year. No SBA loan (Canada). One major client on a new 5-year contract signed just before close. Two clients representing ~50% of revenue (customer concentration). All figures in Canadian dollars. Business founded 1971; seller's son took over in early 2000s after father passed.

Why this business

Fraser had been working as a sell-side M&A advisor at Portage and was assigned to Regional Janitorial Services on his very first day. Over months of building the marketing materials and a close relationship with the seller, he realized the business combined everything he was looking for: B2B recurring revenue, a loyal team with low turnover, a retiring founder who cared about legacy, and a platform he could professionalize. He was also drawn to the human impact he could have on a workforce that lives paycheck to paycheck, something he felt was more meaningful than working in tech or SaaS.

What's working

High EBITDA margins (30-40%) by focusing exclusively on private-sector clients and avoiding low-margin public tenders
Strong recurring revenue with long-tenured client relationships — one major client has had only two cleaning companies in 50 years
Exceptionally low employee turnover averaging ~3 to 3.5 years, driven by the general manager's culture of care
General manager who treats the business as his own and has strong existing relationships with the two largest clients
Premium service positioning: going above contract (e.g., free carpet cleaning) to reduce price-haggling and retain clients
New service line expansion underway — Regional Maintenance leveraging the general manager's 20-year construction background
Promoted two employees to supervisor roles to free the general manager for a sales role

What's hard

Significant customer concentration: two clients represent approximately half of revenue
COVID-era revenue spike (business nearly doubled from 2019 to 2020) created uncertainty about the sustainability of the higher revenue base, which is why an earnout was structured
No office or common space means 50 employees work in silos at client sites — building team culture and cohesion is genuinely difficult
Nighttime cleaners are largely invisible and Fraser had not yet met many of them two months post-close
Business had no website, no CRM, no marketing — processes were entirely pen-and-paper
Equipment and supply logistics are manual (supervisors drive deliveries one day a week)
Resigned from Portage with only a handshake assurance — risked being left jobless if the deal fell through

Notable quotes

I got to a point where I believe that I was going to be the best buyer better than anyone else because I had the passion to do this more passion than anyone else.

I wanted to look somewhere else that just on a human element people are living more paycheck to paycheck things have a bigger implication on them.

The only time you hear something is if there was an issue the next morning. I really want to change that narrative with my team.

Having two kids is much harder than running a business.