THE Business for Sale Marketplace

This is a start-up company, with recent patent. this 80 year old owner developed a new form of composite railway crosstie made of recycled plastics, rubber and other scrapped items as an alternative to wood crossties. The lifespan of a wood tie is about 12-17 years. Composite crossties are somewhat new, but the lifespan are forecast to be at least (if not more than) three to four times that of a wood tie for less than twice the price of a wood tie. Projected annual life cycle cost to RR of wood tie is about $2.35, for composite tie it's thought to be $1.10. Seller says that the composite ties will not crack, splinter or decompose; they're not affected by moisture; are dimensionally consistent; and are environmentally
friendly. Seller's product has been tested by the University of Detroit, Polymer Center of Excellence in Environmental Engineering and Science (available on request), among others.

Seller is 87 years old and infirm, and does not have the drive or the capital to create the company to manufacture or market the product. The process needed is one of "pultrusion". Seller has designed the requisite machinery. Estimates the need for a facility
with a minimum of 200,000 square feet, and an equipment cost of about $1,000,000. Therefore, overall, Seller foresses an initial investment
requirement of somewhere between $2 and $2.5MM, including working capital.

Owner says that every year about 17 million railway crossties are replaced throughout the U.S., so the potential market is huge. Several small companies are currently believed to be making composite ties, and it is believed that one recently received an order for 30,000 ties. (N.B.: The seller has been told by someone in the RR industry that his design is
superior to the competitor's).

There is a huge potential profit here, foreseeably in the multi-million dollars range annually. . Because of the start-up cost, the need for some expertise in designing the product and equipment, and the huge space needs, it's hard to envision many companies coming into this industry. Considering how many millions of crossties there are throughout the U.S., and the multitude of RRs, the market potential is HUGE!