Canada · United States

We buy established home-service businesses and keep them that way.

We buy good businesses outright and run them well. The name stays on the door, the know-how stays in the business, and the customers notice only that things run better. Our edge is growth and operations: more customers, smarter pricing, recurring revenue, and a back office built to last.

Start a conversation What we look for

“We want to work with good, honest people. There is no pressure and no deadline: we take the time to get to know each other, so that when the day comes, your business and your legacy are in the right hands.”

Justin Cohen
Founder, Hunston Group

Good businesses, kept that way.

The name on the door stays. What happens behind it gets stronger.

Approach

How we think about buying a business

An owner and a buyer talking at a kitchen table

No pressure, no delay

Ready to sell today, or only starting to think about it: we work at your pace. When you are ready, we move quickly, because there is no committee to check with and no clock running on your business.

Our edge is growth and operations

We don't buy businesses to re-finance them. We buy them to run them: marketing, sales, pricing, recurring contracts and a back office that scales. That is how a good business becomes a stronger one.

The structure follows your situation

A full sale, a majority with a stake you keep, a slow handover or a quick one. We build the deal around what you need, and we put it in writing early so there are no surprises.

Your legacy is the asset

We buy a business because of what you built, not in spite of it. The name stays on the door, the people who built it with you are treated fairly, and your customers notice nothing except that the phone gets answered faster.

Between us, until you say otherwise

A conversation with us is confidential from the first call. Your staff, your competitors and your customers hear about it when you decide they should, and not before.

What we buy

What we look for in a business

If your business fits most of this, it is worth a coffee. If it fits all of it, we will tell you what it is worth before we talk about a number.

Size

$500K to $5M EBITDA

Adjusted, after paying a manager to do your job. Smaller businesses next to one we own are welcome too.

Trades

Home services

Landscaping and snow, pest control, HVAC, fire and life safety, plumbing, septic, and the trades next to them.

Revenue

Mostly recurring

Service contracts, seasonal contracts, maintenance plans. Mostly residential; no single customer above 15%.

Where

Canada and the United States

Home base is Québec. We come to you, wherever the business is.

Track record

10+ years, clean books

A reputation known by name in your towns, and books an accountant can reconcile in a week.

You

Ready, or getting there

Ready to sell today, or just starting to think about it. You stay for as long as the handover needs, and no longer.

After the sale

Continuity first. Then growth.

We own the business from day one and we run it. The first months are about keeping everything that works. After that, the work is making it stronger.

An owner standing in the doorway of his shop

The front counter of a family-run shop, with old photos of the founder

Continuity

The name, logo, trucks and uniforms
A fair, respectful transition for your team
The customers and the way the work is done
You, for as long as the handover needs

Operations

Marketing: website, Google, reviews, ads
Sales: answering, quoting, booking, follow-up
Finance and admin: bookkeeping, payroll, invoicing, collections
Systems: CRM, scheduling, reporting, hiring

Growth

Customer generation and referral programmes
Pricing: fixed-price menus and seasonal packages
Recurring contracts and maintenance plans
New services and cross-selling across the group

Your staff hear nothing until the deal is signed. On day one you tell them yourself, with us beside you: the name stays, and the business is in good hands.

About

Operator first. Buyer second.

Justin Cohen

Founder

Justin Cohen has spent twenty years growing brands and running multi-site businesses: as a senior executive he helped take a consumer brand from $12 million to $200 million in revenue, led store, e-commerce and marketing operations for national retailers, and was most recently with a group that owns and operates 75 businesses across the United States, where the model is exactly this one: buy good businesses, keep their name, run them well, and grow them.

He lives in Hudson, Québec, works in French and English, and sits on the boards of public and private companies. Hunston Group is his own capital, not a fund: there is no investment committee to check with and no clock running on your business.

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Daniel Stummer

Partner

Daniel Stummer leads new business development and project management at Hunston Group. He spent nine years in real-estate development in the Greater Toronto Area, most recently as Development Manager at Primont Homes, and before that at Tribute Communities and SHS Consulting, moving projects totalling more than 5,000 homes from site search through approvals to delivery.

That work is about keeping many parties moving to one schedule: owners, municipalities, engineers, lenders and builders. He brings the same discipline to every conversation with an owner and to every handover, so nothing falls through the cracks. He studied at York University and is based in Toronto.

LinkedIn →

Contact

A coffee or a 20-minute call.

You may have no interest in selling at all, and that is entirely fair. If you have ever thought about what comes next, write to us. No obligation, nothing to sign, and it stays between us.

justin@hunstongroup.com

Hudson, Québec