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A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
Defence suppliers at Edinburgh and Lonsdale, precision engineers at Tonsley, fabricators at Wingfield and food and wine producers from the Barossa to McLaren Vale: in most South Australian manufacturers, the value starts on the plant register rather than the profit and loss.
An Adelaide manufacturer is usually valued on the asset approach. Machines, tooling, stock and debtors are moved from book value to the amount they would actually realise, and the finance owing on the plant is subtracted. Earnings are capitalised next to test whether the business is worth more than those restated assets; where it is not, the asset value is the answer.
Plenty of South Australian factories were built by founders who are now in their sixties or older, so succession is the most common reason we are called: passing a Regency Park engineering shop to a son or daughter, selling to a management team, or finding a trade buyer. Other triggers include a shareholder leaving, a family law property settlement, refinancing a new laser, press brake or bottling line, an insurance claim after a fire, or a restructure where the ATO needs a market value. Lenders often want an independent figure before they fund expansion into a larger site at Edinburgh, Salisbury or Lonsdale.
Just as often the owner wants to know something the accounts cannot show. Written down values say nothing about what a machine would fetch, and a Wingfield fabricator whose floor is full of plant bought on chattel mortgages cannot tell whether the equity is substantial or nearly nil until every item is valued and the finance is taken off.
A certified valuer will listen to your situation and answer any questions you may have, at no cost.
The Asset Approach leads. Machinery, tooling and inventory dominate a manufacturer's balance sheet while production margins are often thin, so the true worth of that plant tends to be most of the answer.
The adjusted net assets method restates each asset and liability at market value: CNC machining centres, presses, welding and cutting gear, forklifts, racking, moulds and dies, stock at its realisable value, debtors after a sensible provision, any contingent liabilities, and the tax that would fall due if gains in the plant were realised. Where the plant is material, a licensed plant and machinery valuer does that work rather than us estimating it.
Earnings move to the front only when they clearly exceed a fair return on the capital employed. A Barossa or McLaren Vale producer with established brands and long-standing distribution, or an engineering firm holding qualified supplier status on a defence programme, can be worth more than its equipment, and then the asset figure becomes the floor. Capitalised excess earnings can bridge the two results, and where we use it the report sets out its limits.
Profit after a market wage for the owner is capitalised to see whether the business returns enough on the capital tied up in its machinery. If it falls short, the asset result governs, and the report explains that finding clearly.
Sale prices for manufacturers with similar size, products and capital intensity give a range to test against. Mid-sized manufacturing sales are not common enough in Australia to set the value alone, so this evidence informs the conclusion rather than deciding it.
Disagreements over a manufacturer's value usually centre on its adjustments, so each one is shown in the report with its reason instead of sitting in a back schedule. The ones we meet most often are:
Adelaide's manufacturing base changed shape after local car making ended. The northern suburbs around Elizabeth, Edinburgh and Salisbury moved toward defence, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, supplying the naval shipbuilding programme at Osborne and the defence precinct at Edinburgh. Tonsley in the south became an innovation district mixing research, engineering and production, while Lonsdale, Wingfield and Regency Park hold metal fabrication, plastics, building products and general engineering. Beyond the city, food and beverage processing runs through the Barossa, McLaren Vale, the Clare Valley and the Adelaide Hills, with wineries, packaging and bottling firms forming their own supply chain.
That mix shapes the valuation in two ways. It decides the comparable set: a Barossa winery is compared with other wine producers, not with a structural steel shop at Wingfield, because the buyers, margins, stock profile and asset base differ. It also governs how premises are handled. Industrial and vineyard land have their own property markets, so owned land is valued as property and held apart from the trading business, while a lease is assessed on its remaining term and make-good obligations. Defence work brings a specific risk: where much of the revenue flows through one prime contractor or one programme, that concentration is priced into the rate, and any security accreditation the business holds is checked for whether it survives a sale.
Manufacturing business numbers are close to flat. The national count rose only 0.2 per cent in 2025 to 2026, among the slowest of any industry division (Source: ABS, Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022 to June 2026, released 18 August 2026), while South Australia as a whole added a net 5,613 actively trading businesses across all industries, a 3.3 per cent rise (same source). In a capital heavy sector with few new entrants, buyers can afford to be selective, and the restated assets carry more of the value than they would in a faster growing one.
Each report sets out the purpose of the valuation, the standard of value, the valuation date and the information we relied on, and it names anything we asked for that was not supplied. It then takes the reader through every approach considered, the method used, each adjustment with its reasoning, and how the results were weighted to give a range, explained in plain sentences.
An opposing expert goes to that weighting first. If a report cannot explain why the asset result was preferred, or why one point in the range was chosen, it is easily unpicked in the Supreme Court of South Australia, in the Federal Court of Australia's Adelaide registry, or in a lender's credit review. Our reports follow APESB, APES 225 Valuation Services and carry the signature of a credentialed certified valuer who will stand behind the opinion and explain it under questioning.
Which of your assumptions would an opposing expert challenge first, and what is your answer? If the valuer cannot tell you, the report is not ready.
Choose an Indicative valuation if you want to know how much equity remains in the plant after the finance is cleared, before you plan a succession or a sale. It is for internal decision-making and is not written for third party reliance. Choose a Summary report for a sale to a trade buyer or management, a shareholder joining or leaving, or refinancing the plant. Choose a Detailed report for family law, a shareholder dispute, a large insurance claim and any matter another expert will review.
Match the report to its reader. If a court, a lender, the ATO or a rival expert is likely to examine it, the report needs to lay out more of its reasoning.
For internal decision-making. Useful for testing an offer, setting an expectation before a negotiation, or deciding whether to go to market. It is not written for third party reliance.
Sets out the approaches applied, the normalisation adjustments made and the reasoning behind the conclusion. The usual choice for a sale, an ownership change or a finance application.
Applies and reconciles all relevant approaches in full. The level required where a court, the ATO, a lender or another expert will review the opinion.
Talk your situation through with a certified valuer before you commit to anything, at no cost.