Buy-side M&A origination

We find propane companies that aren't for sale.

Most propane acquisitions are won before anyone else knows the company is available. Hearthline builds the target universe, makes first contact with owners, and brings acquirers proprietary conversations instead of auctions.

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The market, in three numbers

54%

Of the US retail propane market sits outside the 68 largest companies — roughly 4.8 billion gallons a year

Companies acquired in the last tracking year, a decade high against a ten-year average of 43

Buyers completed more than one retail propane acquisition. The three national companies completed none

Source: The State of Propane M&A 2026. Every figure in our research carries a confidence grade.

What we do

We work on retained mandates for a single acquirer in a given region. That means building a complete map of independent propane retailers in your territory, identifying the owners, and opening careful, unhurried conversations with the ones who fit what you are trying to buy — long before they call a broker.

We do not run auctions. We do not represent sellers. We do not take a fee from a business owner, ever. The acquirer pays, and the acquirer is the only party we work for.

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Why the research comes first

Nobody publishes a reliable count of independent propane retailers in America. Nobody publishes what they sell for. Nobody separates the retail deals from the tank manufacturers and terminal sales in the industry deal counts — which inflates them by about a fifth.

We publish all of it, free, because a firm that can't measure a market has no business advising anyone who buys in it.

Our research is the credential. It is also, deliberately, the most useful thing an acquirer in this industry can read without paying for it.

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