How do I find a business to buy in Bremen?
The easiest way to find businesses for sale in Bremen is through the AI search function on viaductus. There, you can search for companies that are currently on the market in Bremen.
viaductus is the search engine for buying and selling businesses, as we scan and compile the entire public M&A market for you.
How much does it cost to buy a business in Bremen?
This is difficult to say, as it depends heavily on the size, location, industry, and economic situation of the company.
A good benchmark is usually the EBIT multiplier. This considers the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation, multiplied by a factor between 3 and 8.
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Economic Strength as a Foundation
Bremen, the historic Hanseatic city in northwest Germany, presents itself as a dynamic and forward-looking business location with outstanding conditions for business buyers and investors. Bremen’s impressive economic development is reflected in current economic data, highlighting the location’s special appeal. With remarkable economic growth of 2.1 percent in 2023, Bremen significantly outperformed the national average, demonstrating its economic dynamism even in challenging times. The gross domestic product of €38.6 billion underscores the considerable economic strength of Germany’s smallest federal state, which, with its two municipalities Bremen and Bremerhaven, embodies an ideal combination of Hanseatic tradition and economic innovation. Particularly impressive is the exceptionally high export quota of 55.8 percent, which not only documents Bremen’s strong international orientation but also its deep integration into global value chains and worldwide sales markets. This strong export focus creates additional stability through diversification of sales regions and offers potential acquirers of Bremen-based companies excellent prospects for international business activities and further growth in global markets. Bremen’s robust economic structure, characterized by a healthy mix of established large companies, innovative medium-sized enterprises, and dynamic startups, forms a solid foundation for strategic acquisitions across various industries and company sizes.
Bremen’s strategically favorable geographic location at the Weser estuary, combined with its centuries-old tradition as an open trading city, provides the location with special structural advantages that can be strategically leveraged in acquisitions. The excellent transport infrastructure, with direct access to waterways, a powerful port system, optimal connections to the European highway and rail networks, and an international airport, creates ideal logistical conditions for manufacturing companies, trade, and service providers. The two seaports in Bremen and Bremerhaven, together the fourth-largest port complex in Europe, act as vital hubs for international goods traffic and form the heart of the region’s maritime economy. They generate not only direct employment in port handling but also create diverse business opportunities in upstream and downstream sectors such as logistics, shipbuilding, maritime services, and specialized wholesale. Proximity to the North German economic centers of Hamburg and Hanover, as well as direct connections to North Sea ports and Scandinavian markets, open up additional sales and procurement potentials. Particularly noteworthy is Bremen’s strong industrial base, characterized by a high degree of industrialization with modern production infrastructure, offering an attractive environment for acquisitions in the manufacturing sector. This combination of traditional trading expertise, modern logistics infrastructure, and industrial strength creates a highly advantageous economic ecosystem that offers companies from various industries sustainable development opportunities and an ideal framework for successful acquisitions.
Bremen’s economic attractiveness is further enhanced by business-friendly policies and targeted support measures that create an optimal environment for acquisitions and further operational development. The Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH (WFB) serves as the central contact point for investors and business buyers, providing comprehensive support for acquisition projects. From identifying suitable acquisition targets to facilitating specialized consulting services and coordinating funding and financing instruments, a broad range of services is available to interested investors. Particularly noteworthy are the attractive funding programs, which include both direct financial support in the form of grants, low-interest loans, and guarantees, as well as indirect assistance such as consulting subsidies, training support, and aid for research and innovation projects. The Bremer Aufbau-Bank (BAB), the state-owned development bank, offers tailored financing instruments specifically for business succession, covering the capital requirements for acquisitions and strengthening the equity base. These public offerings are complemented by a dense network of private financing partners such as banks, investment companies, and specialized investors who understand the particular financing needs of business acquisitions. Another valuable location advantage is the comparatively moderate cost and price level, especially for commercial real estate and land, which offers more favorable conditions for investments and business expansion compared to other German economic centers and positively influences the profitability of acquired companies.
The remarkable quality of life in Bremen and Bremerhaven represents another significant location advantage that is increasingly important in acquisitions and plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining qualified professionals. The attractive mix of historic charm, modern urbanity, and extensive green spaces creates an exceptionally livable environment, complemented by a diverse cultural offering, excellent educational institutions, and first-class recreational opportunities. The manageable size of the two municipalities ensures short distances and avoids the disadvantages of large metropolitan areas such as traffic congestion, excessive real estate prices, and anonymity. At the same time, Bremen, as a regional center, offers a full range of urban amenities and services that leave nothing to be desired. The comparatively moderate cost of living, especially in real estate, further enhances the attractiveness for skilled employees and their families. This outstanding quality of life, combined with excellent social infrastructure, top educational institutions, and a broad cultural scene, represents a significant competitive advantage in the increasingly fierce battle for talent. For business buyers, this means that when acquiring a company in Bremen, they not only purchase an economically attractive business but also benefit from a location-related advantage in recruiting and retaining personnel, which is invaluable in times of growing skills shortages and can make a decisive contribution to long-term business success.
Diverse Industry Structure with Future-Oriented Clusters
Bremen’s economic structure is characterized by impressive diversity and balance, providing an ideal framework for acquisitions across various industries and market segments. Particularly characteristic is the successful combination of traditional strengths and forward-looking growth areas, which gives the business location both stability and dynamism. The maritime economy and logistics form historically grown core competencies that continue to shape the economic profile of the Hanseatic city. With the ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven, the region boasts the fourth-largest port complex in Europe, handling over 70 million tons of goods annually and serving as a central hub in international goods traffic. Around this maritime infrastructure, a dense network of specialized companies has developed, ranging from classic port service providers and shipping companies to highly specialized logistics providers. The BLG Logistics Group, one of Europe’s leading logistics companies, exemplifies the innovation and international competitiveness of this sector. For business buyers, this maritime cluster offers diverse acquisition opportunities, from established logistics providers and specialized port operators to innovative startups integrating new technologies and business models into traditional logistics processes. The sector’s particular strength lies in the combination of long-standing experience, international networking, and continuous modernization, providing a solid foundation for sustainable business development.
The aerospace industry has developed over recent decades into an outstanding competence center, making Bremen one of Germany’s leading aerospace clusters. Led by global players such as Airbus, which produces high-lift systems for all Airbus aircraft in Bremen, and the space specialist OHB, a powerful network of suppliers, development partners, and specialized service providers has been established. The ECOMAT (Center for Eco-efficient Materials & Technologies), an interdisciplinary research and development center, combines the innovative power of science and industry and drives the development of future-oriented materials and technologies. With over 12,000 employees and more than 140 companies, this sector represents one of the location’s technological core competencies and offers excellent prospects for technology-oriented acquisitions. Particularly attractive are highly specialized suppliers with patented technologies, engineering service providers with excellent expertise, and innovative companies in materials research and lightweight construction, benefiting from close integration with major system integrators and the region’s excellent research institutions. The sector’s long-term growth prospects, driven by increasing global mobility needs, rising demand for satellite technologies, and the trend toward more sustainable aircraft generations, create a promising environment for strategic investments and acquisitions with attractive future outlooks.
The automotive sector represents another key pillar of Bremen’s economy, led by the Mercedes-Benz plant Bremen, the company’s second-largest production site in Germany with around 12,500 employees. Premium vehicles for the global market are produced here, increasingly including electric models, underscoring the location’s future orientation. Around this industrial anchor, a powerful network of automotive suppliers, engineering service providers, and automation technology specialists has developed, forming a highly integrated automotive cluster. This broad supplier structure includes both Tier-1 suppliers with direct delivery relationships to the vehicle manufacturer and specialized component manufacturers and technology-oriented service providers at downstream levels of the value chain. For business buyers, this cluster offers attractive acquisition opportunities in various market segments, especially companies with expertise in future-relevant fields such as e-mobility, lightweight technologies, autonomous driving, or digital networking, which open interesting development perspectives. The close integration with the vehicle manufacturer, combined with increasing transformation pressure across the automotive industry, creates both opportunities and challenges that must be carefully analyzed in acquisition decisions. Particularly promising are companies that successfully balance established business areas and new technologies and flexibly align their competencies to various applications and customer segments.
As a future-oriented economic sector, Bremen has developed a significant cluster in wind energy, benefiting from its geographic proximity to the North Sea and the associated offshore wind energy development. The Hanseatic city has become one of Germany’s leading locations for offshore wind energy, with specialized companies along the entire value chain—from project development through component manufacturing to installation, maintenance, and operation of wind turbines. The Offshore Terminal Bremerhaven (OTB), a specialized infrastructure for loading wind energy systems, underscores the sector’s strategic importance. Research institutions such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) drive technological development and ensure knowledge transfer to the regional economy. This combination of industrial base, research excellence, and maritime expertise positions Bremen ideally in the growing renewable energy market. For business buyers, promising opportunities arise in this future market with excellent growth prospects, driven by global climate protection goals and increasing demand for CO2-neutral energy production. Particularly interesting are companies with specialized technological know-how, established market positions, or patented solutions that can disproportionately benefit from the sector’s dynamic development.
The food and beverage industry represents another traditional economic sector with a long history in Bremen and continues to provide important economic impulses. Well-known brands like Beck’s beer, brewed in Bremen since 1873 and now part of the globally active AB InBev group, or Mondelez International (formerly Kraft Foods) with a significant production site in Bremen, shape this sector. The industry spectrum is complemented by numerous medium-sized enterprises in food processing, specialty producers, and innovative food-tech companies addressing new trends in nutrition. Excellent logistical connections, qualified specialists, and long-standing expertise in food production create ideal conditions for the successful continuation and further development of acquired businesses in this sector. Particularly attractive for business buyers are established producers with strong regional brands, specialty manufacturers with supraregional marketing, and innovative companies catering to current nutrition trends such as regionality, sustainability, or clean label. The stable demand for food and beverages, combined with continuous innovation impulses driven by changing consumer preferences, creates a balanced mix of economic stability and development dynamism, offering interesting prospects especially for long-term oriented investors. This diverse industry mix, combined with active cluster policies and targeted innovation support, makes Bremen an outstanding location for acquisitions in both traditional and future-oriented economic sectors.
Strong Research and Innovation Location for Future-Oriented Acquisitions
Over recent decades, Bremen has developed into an excellent research and innovation hub, where the close integration of science and business creates ideal conditions for knowledge-based companies and technology-oriented acquisitions. The impressive research landscape includes twelve scientific institutes, among them renowned institutions such as the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM), the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), as well as numerous specialized research centers in areas like aerospace technology, materials science, offshore wind energy, and marine sciences. These research institutions continuously generate scientific insights and technological innovations, which are effectively transferred into the regional economy, unlocking commercial application potential. The University of Bremen, a research-intensive university with around 20,000 students and excellent focuses in natural and engineering sciences, computer science, and social sciences, together with Bremen University of Applied Sciences, the University of the Arts Bremen, and Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, forms a powerful academic network with over 35,000 students in total. This high concentration of academic talent not only ensures a continuous influx of qualified graduates into the regional labor market but also fosters the founding of innovative startups and spin-offs, which can represent interesting acquisition targets for strategic investors. The universities’ consistent focus on practical relevance and cooperation with industry creates additional synergies and facilitates knowledge transfer between academic research and entrepreneurial application.
Bremen strategically invests in future technologies and innovative growth fields, creating a dynamic ecosystem for technology-oriented companies that offers excellent prospects for strategic acquisitions. Key technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, additive manufacturing (3D printing), materials science, and maritime technologies stand out, where Bremen has developed regional competence clusters. Specialized institutions like the Mittelstand 4.0 Competence Center Bremen particularly support small and medium-sized enterprises in digital transformation and implementing Industry 4.0 solutions. Technology parks such as Technologiepark Bremen, located close to the university, provide optimal infrastructure for technology-oriented companies and promote exchange between science and business. Incubators and accelerators like the Bridge program or the ESA Business Incubation Centre Northern Germany support innovative startups in their early stages and accompany them on the path to market maturity. This comprehensive innovation infrastructure creates a fertile environment for technology-based companies at all development stages—from innovative startups through high-growth scale-ups to established technology leaders—and thus offers diverse entry points for strategic acquisitions. Particularly attractive for business buyers are companies that combine their own innovative strength with access to the regional research and development network to generate sustainable competitive advantages and develop supraregional market relevance.
The close integration of science and business is actively promoted in Bremen through diverse cooperation formats and transfer mechanisms, unlocking additional value creation potential for local companies and should be considered in acquisition decisions. Collaborative research centers such as the MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes or the Center for Industrial Mathematics (ZeTeM) pool competencies from various research institutions and create platforms for application-oriented collaboration with industry partners. Public-private partnerships like ECOMAT (Center for Eco-efficient Materials & Technologies), an interdisciplinary research and development center for lightweight materials, drive joint development of future-oriented materials and manufacturing technologies. Cluster initiatives such as the Automotive Nordwest Association, the Wind Energy Agency (WAB), or the Maritime Cluster Northern Germany promote sector-specific exchange and cooperation among companies, research institutions, and other stakeholders. These institutionalized cooperation formats particularly facilitate medium-sized companies’ access to the latest research results and technologies, reduce development risks through joint projects, and open up funding opportunities for cooperative research and development endeavors. For business buyers, this means that acquiring a company in Bremen also grants access to a powerful innovation ecosystem that continuously provides impulses for the company’s further development and sustainably strengthens its technological competitiveness. These structural innovation advantages represent a significant added value that should be factored into the overall evaluation of potential acquisition targets and open up long-term development prospects beyond the company’s current earnings situation.
Targeted promotion of innovation through public programs and private initiatives creates additional incentives for the technological advancement of acquired companies and can significantly contribute to value enhancement post-acquisition. Programs such as the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) or funding measures from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) provide substantial financial resources for research and development projects and reduce equity burdens for innovative initiatives. Specific state programs like the Program for the Promotion of Applied Research and Development in Companies (PFAU) or the Bremen R&D Funding Fund specifically support regional companies’ innovation activities and facilitate the implementation of technologically demanding development projects. Funding for digitalization projects through programs like "Go-Digital" or the "Program for the Promotion of Digitalization in Companies" (DigitalBonus) also offers attractive opportunities to modernize acquired businesses. These diverse funding options, complemented by specialized consulting services for project design and application, create an exceptionally innovation-friendly environment that can be strategically leveraged for the further development of acquired companies. For business buyers with ambitious growth and development plans, Bremen thus offers ideal conditions to lead acquired companies onto new growth paths through targeted innovation projects and technological advancement, sustainably strengthening their market position. The combination of excellent research infrastructure, effective transfer mechanisms, and attractive funding opportunities makes Bremen a premier location for innovation-oriented acquisitions with long-term value enhancement potential.
The Succession Situation in Bremen – Opportunities for Strategic Buyers
Business succession has developed into a central economic policy issue in Bremen in recent years, gaining additional momentum due to demographic changes and shifting entrepreneurial preferences, and opening exceptional opportunities for potential buyers. Current surveys by the Bremen Chamber of Commerce show a significant and steadily increasing demand for succession solutions in the region. An increasing number of established companies face the challenge of finding suitable arrangements for business continuity, as the entrepreneurial personalities of the post-war generation and the economic miracle gradually retire from active business life. This development is further intensified by the demographic structure of the entrepreneurial community: a significant proportion of owners and managing directors of medium-sized companies in Bremen have already passed the age of 60 or are approaching this threshold, which will further increase succession pressure in the coming years. At the same time, a declining willingness for family-internal succession is observed, as the next generation often pursues different career paths or lacks the necessary qualifications and entrepreneurial interest. This constellation leads to the fact that even economically healthy and future-proof companies, due to the lack of family-internal succession solutions, rely on external buyers, strengthening the negotiating position of potential acquirers and often resulting in more attractive acquisition terms. The affected companies come from almost all sectors of Bremen’s economy, with a particular focus on manufacturing, crafts, the maritime sector, and various specialized service areas, offering a broad range of acquisition opportunities for diverse interested parties.