Company History

From a single office in Charleston, South Carolina, Sunbelt began began helping buyers find businesses for sale in 1978. In 1991, Ed Pendarvis, Sunbelt’s founder, began partnering with local entrepreneurs to open additional Sunbelt offices throughout the Carolinas. In each new city, Sunbelt quickly became the dominant business brokerage firm thanks to its unique approach to the market and its proprietary methodologies. Recognizing the potential appeal of offering business brokers a proven business sale system designed specifically for SME size businesses and a brand name with which to associate themselves, Sunbelt began selling franchises in 1993.

Over the ensuing 14 years, Sunbelt developed into the largest network of franchised business brokerage offices in the world and, in February 2006, Sunbelt was acquired by Merrymeeting, Inc., an investment firm specializing in the acquisition and development of franchised brands. Today, with over 300 locations in 22 countries and 1,400 business brokers around the world, no other business brokerage network matches Sunbelt’s geographic coverage, visibility to buyers and business sales experience. On any given day, you can find more than 12,000 small and medium-sized businesses for sale across the Sunbelt network with estimated combined value of nearly $8.3 billion!  Don’t let our size fool you, though.  Each Sunbelt office is independently owned and operated; and Sunbelt Ireland, owned by Managing Director John Murray has been operating since 2005 although prior to that John was involved in the sale of small businesses for over 10 years.  In this way, the global reach of the Sunbelt network is balanced with intensive local market knowledge and involvement in the business communities in which we operate. This allows us to be one of the most effective tools you can utilize if you are looking to buy or sell a business. For these reasons and more, business brokers, buyers and sellers worldwide consider Sunbelt the place to go to buy or sell a business®.