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Selling a water treatment company?
A permanent home for your commercial water treatment business
Cooling towers, boilers, and building water systems need constant attention to stay efficient and safe. If your specialists keep them running for hospitals, campuses, plants, and office buildings, we'd like to talk.
Why we like it
Why we buy water treatment businesses
Howler Mountain is a family-owned holding company that buys essential service businesses in the Southeast and holds them for good. Commercial water treatment (cooling towers) fits what we look for: recurring, route-based work that customers can't skip.
Systems that never stop
Cooling towers and boilers need ongoing chemical treatment to control scale, corrosion, and microbiological growth. Skipping it costs owners energy, equipment life, and downtime.
Legionella has raised the stakes
Cooling towers have been linked to Legionnaires' disease outbreaks. ASHRAE Standard 188 and CDC guidance call for water management programs, and CMS expects healthcare facilities to have them.
Recurring service and supply
Treatment programs typically combine regular service visits, testing, and chemical supply, which makes for steady, repeat revenue.
Expertise customers rely on
Facility managers depend on experienced water treatment specialists. Those relationships, and the knowledge behind them, tend to last for years.
What we look for
What stands out to us
No business checks every box. These are the strengths we get excited about.
- Recurring service accounts for cooling towers, boilers, and closed-loop systems
- Experienced water treatment specialists with deep customer relationships
- Testing capabilities and support for Legionella water management plans
- Healthcare, education, industrial, and commercial real estate customers
- Solid chemical supply relationships and good service records
Our criteria
- Geography
- Across the Southeast, with deeper interest in Atlanta and Georgia. We love investing in our community.
- Revenue
- $2.5 – $50 million, typically recurring (smaller for add-ons)
- Cash flow
- $0.5 – $5 million (smaller for add-ons)
- Ownership
- Founder owned or long-time owner
- Structure
- Majority to full buyout, including partnerships with management
For owners
What happens after you sell
We're not private equity. We fund acquisitions with our own capital and are built to hold businesses for decades, not flip them in a few years.
At Howler Mountain, people come first: customers and employees. We invest in teams, infrastructure, and technology, and build on the foundation you established. Deals range from majority to full buyouts, including partnerships with management.
Confidential from the first conversation. We know how sensitive a potential sale is for your employees and customers. What you share with us stays between us.
Know a water treatment business owner?
If you introduce us to the owner and we go on to buy the company, we'll pay you $10,000 in cash at close. (Not available to brokers, investment bankers, or other financial intermediaries.)
Contact
Let's talk about your company
Whether you're ready to sell or just starting to think about the future of your water treatment business, a conversation costs nothing and stays confidential.
Questions owners ask
Is Howler Mountain a private equity firm?
No. We're a family-owned holding company based in Atlanta. We fund acquisitions with internal capital and are structured to hold businesses for the long term, not to flip them.
Will our conversations stay confidential?
Yes. We know how sensitive a potential sale is for your employees and customers, and we treat every conversation with discretion.
My business is smaller than your criteria. Should I still reach out?
Yes. Smaller companies can be a great fit as add-ons to businesses we already own, so it's worth a conversation.
Other industries we buy