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14 articles
PFAS Reporting Is Becoming a Diligence File, Not Just an EHS File

PFAS Reporting Is Becoming a Diligence File, Not Just an EHS File

Last updated: March 30, 2026.

8 min read
Tariffs Change Buyer Diligence Before They Change Multiples

Tariffs Change Buyer Diligence Before They Change Multiples

Last updated: March 30, 2026.

6 min read
When the Senior Chemist Retires, What Leaves With Them?

When the Senior Chemist Retires, What Leaves With Them?

What exactly leaves a specialty chemical business when the one person who remembers why a formulation changed in 2019 walks out for the last time? Not just a formula sheet. The ...

7 min read
Break-Fix Is Fleeing. The Best Service Businesses Sell Recurring Uptime

Break-Fix Is Fleeing. The Best Service Businesses Sell Recurring Uptime

Two service businesses can look identical from the road. Same trucks. Same uniforms. Same full calendar. But one waits for the plant to go down and then races the clock, while the ...

7 min read
Why Independent Sponsors Can Buy Businesses Private Equity Cannot

Why Independent Sponsors Can Buy Businesses Private Equity Cannot

On Axial's platform, Independent Sponsors accounted for 27% of closed deals over the last 12 months, compared with 20% for Private Equity Funds. That is not a niche footnote. More ...

7 min read
When the Best Machinist Is a Balance-Sheet Liability

When the Best Machinist Is a Balance-Sheet Liability

What does a company really own if the best machinist still carries the setup logic, the tolerance calls, and the scrap-saving instincts in his head? Inside the shop, that person ...

7 min read
When 30 Years of Service Knowledge Lives in One Field Tech's Head

When 30 Years of Service Knowledge Lives in One Field Tech's Head

Every service owner knows the technician everyone asks for. He knows which plant manager hates surprise shutdowns, which compressor starts lying before it fails, and which old ...

7 min read
Technology on the Shop Floor

Technology on the Shop Floor

The fix is often small enough to miss. A veteran operator hears a spindle drift, changes the sequence by half a beat, and keeps the run clean. Nothing dramatic happens, which is ...

7 min read
Why We Buy Founder-Led Industrial Businesses

Why We Buy Founder-Led Industrial Businesses

Most owner exits in America still do not end in a sale. They end in closure. McKinsey says 92% of small-business exits occur through closure, while 5% happen through sales and 3% ...

15 min read
Industrial Services M&A 2026: Essential Work, Thin Data, and What Buyers Can Still See

Industrial Services M&A 2026: Essential Work, Thin Data, and What Buyers Can Still See

Before sunrise, the yard is already awake. Vans back out one by one. A dispatcher studies a screen full of missed calls, open tickets, and technicians who can handle a chiller but ...

9 min read
How Technology Is Changing Industrial & B2B Services

How Technology Is Changing Industrial & B2B Services

Last updated: March 30, 2026.

14 min read
The Founder's Guide to Selling a Manufacturing Business

The Founder's Guide to Selling a Manufacturing Business

The banker sends the first diligence list on a Tuesday afternoon, and suddenly the company that felt orderly on Monday looks personal. Who approves pricing. Why one customer gets ...

8 min read
AI in Specialty Chemicals: What Actually Works on the Plant Floor and in the Lab

AI in Specialty Chemicals: What Actually Works on the Plant Floor and in the Lab

In specialty chemicals, the expensive mistake is rarely dramatic. It is a formulation tweak buried in an old notebook, a raw-material substitution that takes too long to validate, ...

7 min read
Specialty Chemicals M&A 2026: Fewer Deals, Stubborn Multiples, and the New Cost of Compliance

Specialty Chemicals M&A 2026: Fewer Deals, Stubborn Multiples, and the New Cost of Compliance

In the first half of 2025, only 243 chemical deals were announced, the lowest half-year count since before COVID. You would expect pricing to crack after a number like that. It ...

6 min read

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