When a small group of investors bought Liquid Rubber Inc. in 2009, revenue hovered around $2 million, but profits were nonexistent and making payroll was a struggle at times. The waterproofing products manufacturer based in Oakville, Ontario, was solely focused on business-to-business (B2B) sales to commercial roofing contractors and distributors. The business model was simply not working.
In 2016, Jake Karam, president and CEO of Liquid Rubber, and his team made a radical choice: completely abandon their B2B focus and sell directly to do-it-yourself homeowners instead.
The digital transformation meant Liquid Rubber had to repackage its product from drums and bulk containers to consumer-friendly five-gallon pails and one-gallon cans. The bigger challenge was figuring out how to reach homeowners and teach them to use professional-grade waterproofing products. While commercial contractors already knew how to use the products, the DIY consumer needed a lot more guidance.
Amazon’s tools became essential to the business as it expanded into the direct-to-consumer (D2C) space. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which provides storage, picking, packing, fulfillment, and customer service for orders, helped Liquid Rubber solve the challenge of shipping waterproofing products across North America. Karam said compared to other logistics providers, FBA was the most efficient and cost effective.
“All we have to do is send our product into an Amazon [fulfillment center] and they will take it at a better cost than we can get anywhere else and send it to the customer,” said Karam, who added that Prime shipping through FBA translated to a 35% uptick in sales.
Liquid Rubber also leveraged Amazon’s A+ Content, which enhances product detail pages with rich text, engaging image carousels, and videos. Liquid Rubber’s Brand Store within Amazon provides in-depth guidance for DIY home projects like fixing a leaky roof, coating a deck, or waterproofing a basement through videos, images, and specification sheets.
“People don’t like to necessarily read all the bullet points, so you’ve got to make something that’s catchy and that they can understand to complete that project at home,” Karam noted.
Liquid Rubber’s numbers show that the pivot worked. In nine years, the business has gone from zero e-commerce sales to over 90% of overall sales. The workforce has expanded from seven employees to over 40, based in the Greater Toronto Area and Fort Worth, Texas. Revenue has consistently grown 25% year over year since 2016, going from $2 million to mid-eight figures.
“When we started with Amazon, we had no idea what e-commerce was going to look like,” Karam said. “If you had told me back then, ‘you’re going to be the CEO of an e-commerce business that’s doing mid-eight figures,’ I would’ve said you were crazy and here we are.”
Their footprint has expanded from one 20,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Ontario to two additional warehouses in Canada and one in Fort Worth, Texas. With 75% of their total sales coming from the U.S., having a presence in Texas has become crucial for reaching customers in warm year-round climates. Canadian winters bring sales to near zero because the product can’t freeze and can’t be applied in snow. Florida, Texas, and California kept revenue flowing year-round, transforming the business from seasonal survival mode to sustainable growth.
The company is now planning to open a second manufacturing facility in Texas and anticipates growing from 40 employees to nearly 100 in the next five years. At the same time, Karam expects revenue to reach nine figures. But he also clarified that the most important part of reaching that goal is the employment they’re providing people.
“It’s not about your earnings,” he explained. “It’s about providing a place for people to come and work and make a livelihood.”