eComFuel Made in America: Growing FilterBuy.com Into a $250 Million Business (Rerun)
Oct 3, 2025
David Heacock, CEO of FilterBuy.com, transformed a family business into a $250 million U.S.-based manufacturing giant. He discusses the bold decision to stop importing and embrace domestic production, highlighting the competitive edge of streamlined logistics. David shares insights on early Amazon strategies and the importance of hiring experienced leaders. He emphasizes the significance of building a sustainable legacy and the delicate balance of automation and human labor in his factories. Tune in for a masterclass in competing against overseas manufacturing!
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How A Warehouse Fire Redirected Strategy
- David Heacock started FilterBuy in 2012 after buying his family's failing industrial supply business and chose pleated air filters over remanufactured ink cartridges.
- A 2016 warehouse fire that destroyed imported inventory pushed him to focus fully on U.S. manufacturing.
Logistics, Not Product, Is The Moat
- The air filter business is primarily a logistics business, not a product-cost business.
- Making filters domestically wins because you collapse distribution layers and reduce total movement costs.
Buy Expertise, Don’t Recreate It
- If you reshore manufacturing, buy an existing small manufacturer to capture institutional knowledge instead of starting from zero.
- Avoid underestimating hidden process minutiae like glue humidity or undocumented tricks.
