Fragmented industries get consolidated in a recognizable order. Aging ownership, recurring revenue, standardizable operations, local route density, and a regulatory barrier that keeps newcomers out: when those line up, capital eventually arrives and the multiple re-rates.
The useful question is not which industries are fragmented — most are — but which are fragmented and about to stop being. This topic maps that transition: what the early signals look like, what happens to the arithmetic once institutional buyers show up, and why arriving after them is a materially different business from arriving before. Car washes and veterinary clinics are instructive precisely because that window has already closed.
