We’ve been researching cross-border buyouts in mature UK industrial sectors. Here’s an acquisition dynamic that caught our attention. One that caught our attention was Foresight Group’s £12 million investment in the management buyout of Automotive & Industrial Consumables (AIC), a Leeds-based distributor serving more than 5,500 customers across the UK, Europe and the U.S. with over 6,100 products. AIC built its position by locking down long-standing supplier relationships, broad regional SKU availability, and multi-channel fulfillment. That got us thinking about a broader question we frequently see on Searchfunder: When does buying established B2B distribution and geographic customer coverage become far more efficient than building or scaling the same footprint organically? We see a similar dynamic in fragmented U.S. distribution - industrial fasteners, HVAC parts, regional auto aftermarket and other niche categories where the moat comes from customer relationships and sourcing channels rather than proprietary IP. India, the UK and Australia may look very different from the U.S., but the underlying acquisition logic often travels surprisingly well. The geography changes. The playbook doesn’t always have to. Curious to hear from other searchers: Have you evaluated UK or international targets primarily to buy existing distribution networks / geography, rather than evaluating the deal purely on isolated EBITDA? How do you benchmark entry multiples for UK industrial B2B distributors vs. US peers?