Episode #38: Navigating Legacy and Innovation in Manufacturing with Jake Grossman of EZPZ Brands
In this episode of U.S. Manufacturing Today, our host Matt Horine speaks with Jake Grossman, the leader of Fibematics and Founder of EZPZ Brands. With over 60 years of family history in manufacturing in Philadelphia, Jake offers a unique perspective on managing trade policies, maintaining a multi-generational business, and building resilient supply chains. He shares the story behind Fibematics and EZPZ Brands, the importance of balancing tradition with innovation, and effective strategies for navigating tariffs and supply chain challenges. The discussion also covers the significance of strong supplier relationships, the resilience of the non-woven products industry, and the goals and challenges for EZPZ's future growth, focusing on sustainability and automation. Join us as Jake Grossman provides valuable insights and advice for small to mid-sized manufacturers.
Links
- Jake Grossman on LinkedIn
- EZPZ Brands
- Fibematics
- Navigating Trump 2.0
- Veryable Is Revitalizing U.S. Manufacturing
- Sign Up on the Veryable Platform
- Veryable Shop
Timestamps
- 00:00 Introduction to U.S. Manufacturing Today
- 00:15 Meet Jake Grossman: Leading Fibematics and EZPZ Brands
- 01:03 The Origin Story of Fibematics
- 02:16 Balancing Tradition and Innovation
- 03:02 Navigating Tariffs and Trade Policies
- 05:13 Strategies for Supply Chain Resilience
- 08:51 Exploring Non-Woven Wiping Products
- 16:04 The Launch of EZPZ Brands
- 18:40 Sustainability and Future Growth
- 20:22 Maintaining Family-Owned Business Values
- 22:20 Advice for Family Owned Manufacturers
- 23:30 Conclusion and Where to Learn More
Episode Transcript
Matt Horine: [00:00:00] Welcome back to US Manufacturing today. The podcast powered by Veryable where we talk with the leaders, innovators, and change makers, shaping the future of American industry, along with providing regular updates on the state of manufacturing, the changing landscape policies, and more.
Today we have a very special guest, Jake Grossman, who leads Fibematics, a family owned manufacturing company with more than 60 years of history in Philadelphia. On top of that, he also founded EZPZ Brands, which specializes in non-woven wiping products. A market few know really well, but many rely on in everyday life.
Jake has an incredible vantage point navigating modern trade policies, managing a multi-generational business, and building resilient supply chains. In a world where tariffs and sourcing risk can make or break a mid-size manufacturer. We're going to dig into how EZPZ has adapted to changing tariffs, how a family legacy stays strong in an unpredictable global environment, and how you build a supply chain that can absorb shocks, not just survive them.
Jake, welcome to US Manufacturing today.
Jake Grossman: Thanks for having me.
Matt Horine: Alright, we're very excited [00:01:00] to have you on today and I think we'll just jump right into it. First of all, would love to tell our audience how easy peasy brands began and Fibematics, and what does it mean to run a family company that's been in business for almost six decades.
Jake Grossman: Yeah, so the story has it, my grandfather was at a picnic back before 1968, so that's when we started, so probably in 1967, and he spilled on a tablecloth. That tablecloth ended up being DRC, which is a non-woven, and it sucked up the spill quickly. He saw the bag that the DRC came in. It was labeled with Scott Paper.
He called Scott Paper seeing if he could buy the product. Not disrespectfully, but told him they only sell to large distributors, so he ended up going around them finding the local mill and paid their trash truck drivers to give him their waste. He decided to pick up all the waste, pretty much had the trucks backed up and buying all of it.
He converted the waste to sizes that he knew the customers would want, and the rest is history. So without the relationships [00:02:00] we'd built both from suppliers and customers, our business would not be where it is today. Fibematic was built on service, grit and relationships, and through EZPZ brands, we really hope to continue that legacy.
Matt Horine: That's a great backstory. And most family businesses have those. You've got ones that spans generations. You're now. The owner seat. How do you balance that tradition with the innovation of your products, which I'm looking forward to talking to you about here in just a few minutes, but especially with trade policy, the way that it is and their sourcing pressures, how do you balance that demand agility?
Jake Grossman: Yeah, so we respect tradition, but we're really not married to the past. Obviously, innovation right now is extremely essential, especially with the supply chain environment. We've innovated through in-house converting. We have 17 converting lines here in Philadelphia. The launch of EZPZ brands, right?
So we're able to provide off the shelf products with lower minimums and sharper packaging. The goal, obviously, as a family owned business is to keep that integrity, but operate with the agility of a modern manufacturer.
Matt Horine: That makes a lot of sense, and I guess it probably has a lot to do with balancing that, that [00:03:00] leadership of a family owned business and keeping the legacy alive.
But I want to jump into something you said there, specifically how the world has changed a little bit and maybe talk tariff and trade policy. There's been tariffs on metals, raw materials, imports. They've rocked a lot of manufacturers because they've had to upend their supply chains or think differently.
From your perspective, how have recent tariff changes impacted EZPZ and Fibematics.
Jake Grossman: It's a bit two-pronged on two of the specific points you mentioned, both the raw material and the metals. On the raw material side, it's really impacted cost structures across the board. Sourcing from the far East now comes with unpredictability and a lot of cost volatility.
For mid-size manufacturer like us, it hits margins incredibly fast. It's been important to be nimble and rotate quickly. We're lucky that we have a lot of domestic suppliers along. Global. Global. It's been important for us to kinda have relationships in different countries rather than relying on one. So we're able to [00:04:00] move and change quickly if there is a certain country that may have a lower tariff rate than another.
On the metal front, just to provide a specific example, we're looking at a machine in one of the countries that got hit hard with the metal tariffs specifically on an. On a piece like that, it just makes sense for us to hold off for the time being. There's no reason to push for it. If it's a 50% tariff, you're looking at a hundred thousand dollars machine, you're now paying 150.
It just doesn't make sense. It doesn't fit into our forecasting and build out model where we look at the pricing and the ROI. So on the machine front, we hold steady and using what we have now. We're lucky, like I said, again, we have 17 converting lines already in-house before all of this happened, so we've just been relying on that for the time being.
Matt Horine: Something you said there has been a recurring theme on this show, which is margin pressure and holding steady, right? Like people have. It's something that we've seen across the board where people are waiting to make capital expenditures or they are, they are facing the realities of their [00:05:00] margin pressure, mitigating those kinds of risks.
How have you seen outside of hedging and supplier diversification, what of those strategies is working best for you? Because I think a lot of people are looking for really good advice on that. You've seemed to balance it really well.
Jake Grossman: Supply chain diversification has definitely been the biggest litigant for us, and we maintain relationships with both domestic and global mills to ensure we're getting the best product at the best price.
We've also cultivated many new relationships with countries not as affected by the tariffs and can pivot quickly on supply should the tariff rate for set countries change. On top of that, our inventory positions strong and probably stronger than people would typically be comfortable with. We adjust our buying patterns, kind of preempt disruptions and the standardization of skews through easy peasy brands has also re reduced the reliance on volatile custom orders and provide us with clear forecast on customer demand.
It really ensures that we have the product and materials we need for our broad base of customers rather than nichey one.
Matt Horine: That's a [00:06:00] really interesting point because I think that's something we've also seen is people have hedged on that inventory strategy, right? They may be holding a little more they want, but it's actually quite a safety net and I don't think it's a much of an opportunity cost on the margin front, but many small to mid-size manufacturers don't have, they think about this and they think buying power, they think about their potential to to buy ahead or plan ahead.
How can they still make those meaningful decisions to protect margin or avoid disruption?
Jake Grossman: For us specifically, we really have my grandfather to thank, and many of our supply relationships have spanned decades pretty much to when he started the business. And the relationship is more than just buyer, seller.
We visited and broken bread with our partners very often. It's something that my dad, who now runs the company, is ingrained in the culture here. We really think of it as a partnership. Go taking your suppliers out to dinner, visiting them often, always having a pulse check on where they stand, who if they have inventory to provide us.
We always have a sense of what's available and how we can get it. But to [00:07:00] answer your question more broadly, number one would be to definitely ensure you have multiple vendors for each product. If one vendor were to jack the prices up, you wanna be able to have an option two and three and four, rather than just an option two.
It's important to build your supply relationships the same way you would with your customers. Lastly, I think something that's super important that we've seen also in our business is it's important to be transparent with your customers. Sometimes you're going to have to raise the price. It's way better to do that if you have a strong relationship with your customer and you can communicate that in a effective way rather than sending a a generic, broad-based email across the board to all your customers.
I think they appreciate the reasoning. They're in the same boat as us, right? They're, if they, if we have to raise prices, they have to raise prices. They're also being hit from other supplier relationships in terms of having a raise to their customers. So everyone's in the same boat here. It's about matching and riding the ship together rather than leave them out to dry and them dealing with their customers.
So I think having strong relationships on every aspect of the [00:08:00] supply chain. Really just being trans transparent, communicative and friendly, I guess for the lack of a better term with your customers.
Matt Horine: That makes so much sense because a lot of times, and especially in a competitive global trade market like we're seeing right now, so many things are transactional because people are just under pressure.
They're getting like 48 hours notice on some type of tariff change or. The way we've always done things and you said something that caught my attention there. Having your grandfather to thank in a family business like that, you know, you don't see a lot of that old school mentality where it's treat your vendors like your customers.
I thought that was really important because I've certainly been in the position where you want to because they, the key holder on a lot of how your product gets made or if it gets made at all. Just a couple more thoughts and questions on the supply chain resilience and some of your sourcing, because this is pretty fascinating and we can get into the detail of your product as well.
For your nonwoven wiping products, what does your supply chain look like? How do you manage the material sourcing? And give us a little bit of background on [00:09:00] some of that specialization and what is nonwoven inputs or woven products. Maybe we'll get an overview of your product lineup there.
Jake Grossman: It's really a hybrid for us. We source both. Globally and domestically, depending on availability, price, and grade. We convert the majority of these materials in our US facility based in Philadelphia. That's definitely our biggest advantage, having the converting lines and be able to bring in all these raw materials and put them into different put up.
We got lucky. We have a guy here that's been with us for 15 years who has very strong relationships in countries outside of the us. He travels there quite frequently. He's really a specialist in all things non-woven. He's our guru in terms of coming up with new products, having a pulse on the market, understanding the customers.
If one raw materials from a certain country's getting hit with the tariff, that's significant. He's quickly able to identify a different product that we could maybe source domestically and suit the customer's needs. So obviously we don't wanna switch a [00:10:00] customer to a item that would not. Fit what they're currently using.
But we've had the benefit of the industry knowledge being around for so long and having supply partners where typically if we're unable to get the exact material that we've been using for a while for a certain customer, we're able to quickly transition to a new raw material that's. Pretty close to what they're currently getting and utilize that.
Matt Horine: Yeah, that flexibility and adaptability, it sounds, sounds really critical and something that kind of sets apart from a lot of what our listeners deal with every day there. There's like these rigid structures, right? And so not having those good vendor relationships is definitely something that we, A big takeaway.
One of the big questions we get, and we talk a lot about a reindustrialization and reshoring potential opportunities. Are you seeing a lot of reshoring opportunities in your space right now, or are there places. Importing makes more sense for your business, or what do you see in terms of that landscape?
Jake Grossman: So domestically, it definitely gives us speed and reliability, which helps us get product to the customers [00:11:00] faster. That's ideal for us. Global still gives us cost and scale. We can't make everything all at once. Yes, we have 17 converting lines. Our machines could put wipes into different put up. You could make the rolls, you could make the popups, or you could make the flat sheet napkins.
Again, there's only so much you can make at once. So we're always looking at investing new machinery to provide us with more speed and capabilities. Again, that's been put on pause for the time being just based on the metal tariffs across the Far East, but sometimes important just makes more sense for our business, right?
Like it's pretty hard to justify making or. An investment in a significant piece of machinery if we're able to get it at a lower cost, even with a tariff from a alternative country. For us, it's really finding the perfect balance between the two of those things. We actually, now that we got lucky, it was strategic, but the timing helped.
We invested in a Mexican converting company that does essentially the same thing as zos. They [00:12:00] don't have 17 converting lines. They probably have seven. They're able to make the different put up that we also can, we sell this company some of our raw materials, but always have the option of sourcing from them if we're o at over capacity or if there's some disruption supply.
Matt Horine: Yeah. That's something also that seems to be a recurring trend, is that the nearshoring push, right? For things that are just a little bit closer and this regionalization, so that's really good to hear. I also caught something that you mentioned, and this is looking into 2026. There's obviously some incentives coming along as part of some national policy and the, what was called the big beautiful bill and CapEx expenditures and those types of things.
You're still seeing a lot of people on the sidelines. Sounds like you've got a great setup, 17 converting lines, but the investment in infrastructure and tooling and those types of partnerships, is that something that's on the horizon? Is that kind of ensure the future resiliency?
Jake Grossman: So we actually, right before the tariffs went into effect, we have a machine that's ready.
We just are holding it until the tariffs come down. So we'll [00:13:00] be bringing that in, adding an 18th machine. But yeah, we're always continuing to look to invest and add new equipment to speed up our converting lines or add new capabilities. We've added some capacity to our machines by investing in new parts.
We had one of, one of the companies that supplies us came in in the past month or two. To do a report on our production capacity. So they analyze how the machine's running, are able to provide us with new parts or kind of ideas on how to speed stuff up. And then lastly, something I've been focused on is definitely the automation piece.
I was actually fascinated, I went to one of our customers in, I went to two actually in Europe earlier in the summer, and they're really running high capacity with probably a quarter amount of the people. Running those machines, obviously you don't want to completely replace it, but there there's definitely some pieces of automation that are interesting to us, whether that's palletizing the robotic hand packaging machine, stuff like that.
So that's something we're looking at as well.
Matt Horine: That makes a lot of sense. It's [00:14:00] something we had a guest on a couple weeks ago, Timur Göreci with OrderFox, and he had talked about, the big secret is that there is a lot of capacity in the US today. There's just, it's a little bit of fragmentation and folks sitting on the sidelines, so it's really good to hear that it reinforces it.
Turning now a little bit more to the product because many listeners may not know much about non-woven wiping products or your brand. Can you walk us through that business and what's strategically important and your markets How? How all this works?
Jake Grossman: It's funny 'cause I get the same thing sometimes, like non-wovens is the actual word.
People don't necessarily understand exactly what that means. But they're really everywhere, right? So from automotive shops, manufacturing facilities, food service, hospitality settings, all the way to the medical field, nursing homes, stuff like that. It's really a resilient industry. I've seen in COVID when paper towels were just absolutely flying off the shelves, so you couldn't get them.
People were hoarding them. And the something I love about the industry as well is unless robots start manually wiping [00:15:00] down these cars with their hands rather than a ripe wipe, or they're in the back of the kitchen wiping down with their bare hands rather than a wipe, it's really hard to replace the need for an actual wipe.
So are three product lines and easy peasy brands. Easy, tough, serving the industrial, automotive, and manufacturing settings. Easy, fresh with the food service and hospitality and easy care. With the medical and healthcare settings, we really serve pretty much every market. There is examples to, to give you hard examples of non-wovens, if you were to go to, uh, Home Depot or Lowe's, the Scotch Rag in a box that's a non-woven, it's that center pole that you know a lot of DIYers will use in their house on cars.
If you're at a. Restaurant, the, if they're not using a rag in the back of the kitchen, they're using a non-woven wiper. So they're really everywhere. It's just the term non-woven gets a little tricky. People overcomplicate it to what it is sometimes.
Matt Horine: Sometimes people don't know where the phrase [00:16:00] originally came from, but that makes a lot of sense and something that people see in their everyday life.
For sure. And recently, or nearly recently, you decided to launch it under the easy peasy brand name. What market gap did you see there? What was the focus of that branding? Just because it's part of your business, it's part, it's all same portfolio, no major difference. But what, what was the reasoning behind that?
Jake Grossman: There are really three main reasons. The first being our customers. We really wanna listen to our customers and evolve with them. Ecpc was launched coming out of COVID to provide our customers with lower minimum order quantities, faster lead times, and a branded solution for standard SKUs Across all product lines, we're able to reach a broader set of customers that may have not been able to order four to five to six pallets at a time.
That was our typical minimum order for private labeled work. Now we're able to re reach a very broad set with the one pallet minimum, and by having these skews available on our floor, the lead times reduced drastically. Customers in a [00:17:00] pinch, they need product quick. We're typically able to ship within a week two internally.
It's really helped us streamline operations by having a set. 20 plus skews. We have products readily available on the floor to ship out. It also helps our machine run significantly. The worst thing you could do for a machine is run one pallet switch, the product runs. You have a lot of downtime. You obviously don't want downtime when you're running the manufacturing plant.
You want the machine to be running the same thing as much as possible. So we've really gained efficiencies by doing that, and it also just simplifies the process for our operators and team as a whole. It's less standard is, or it's less complicated, it's more standardized. There's a set list of products that we're running most, and the team's been able to benefit from that.
And then lastly, like I said, in one of my previous responses during COVID, paper towels were flying off shelves. A lot of our competitors. Got gobbled up by big strategics. There's a lot of consolidation in our industry. So two of our main competitors [00:18:00] actually got bought, and there's a need in the market for a new brand to arise and fill that void.
So we did that with EZPZ, offering the 20 something sku's across the three product lines, and really providing distributors across the nation, but also the globe with a solution that is able to benefit their customers.
Matt Horine: That's really great to hear because I think a lot of the story of the pandemic timeframe, there was so much concern about the consolidation across industries where people were getting rolled up or bought up, and it's really great to hear that a family brand as well established as yours, not only made it through, but has filled the market gap with something like easy peasy.
It's a really great story. One other thing that I think we talked about earlier is a sustainability question. We touched on this maybe when we met, but with the rising sustainability pressures and demand for disposable, but high performance materials, do you see innovation in non-wovens as like the key lever for American manufacturing growth in the segment?
Or what's the thought process around [00:19:00] that?
Jake Grossman: So the good part about non-wovens, they're highly customizable. Aside from the easy peasy where we're doing the standard set of skews, if we've a customer that. Wants to meet the private label requirements. We're able to customize pretty much any wipe to the need.
They want innovations in sustainable fibers, biodegradable wipes and antimicrobial treatments are big opportunities for domestic producers to lead and not necessarily follow. And we're already exploring a lot of alternative materials that check both the performance and ESG boxes. So we're always looking at that.
Matt Horine: That's really great. So what's next for the brand if, where is easy peasy heading in the next five to 10 years? Are you looking at more domestic production, new product lines, exporting more? What's the big goal?
Jake Grossman: Well, hopefully continued success in the US market. Definitely want to expand US production.
We'd like to see growth specifically in our food service and healthcare lines. Adding products to the easy care line. That could help our customers build out and penetrate the healthcare, nursing home markets. I think we only [00:20:00] have one or two products in that line right now, adding more solutions there that help our healthcare distributors reach their customers.
And then we're currently doing some exports on the easy peasy, but that's something we'd always like to grow. Part of our business, five Max is a whole, we do a lot of exports. So doing that with Easy Peasy two is definitely a goal, a great growth plan, and obviously is there's all kinds of new markets for it.
Matt Horine: One other thing, just to reiterate and draw back to the beginning of the show, how do you balance that growth with maintaining the family owned ethos? You've got this new brand name, the easy peasy, but it's part of a very distinct culture and something that your family's obviously built. How do you maintain that, that quality, that legacy, and that control?
Jake Grossman: I think we do a really good job of that. Our main facility still the one that my grandfather opened up back in 1968, albeit we now have 300,000 square feet and pretty much own the entire street we're on, but the office I'm sitting in now is right above the manufacturing plant that he was initially in.
We really maintain this by being extremely close with our customers [00:21:00] and our employees. A lot of our employees have been here for 20 plus years. A lot of people working in the plant were here when my grandfather was here. So the family business is really instilled in everything we do and moving forward.
Like we really listened to feedback both from our employees and customers, and that helps drive our decision making and really provides the best experience for everyone involved.
Matt Horine: Yeah, no, that's something that I think has maintained a level of truth to it more. Anything in a turbulent environment is that people like doing business with companies that run like that.
You just don't, you don't see it as often because of, like you said, there's consolidation, there's change in people, there's a lot of fast moving parts. Obviously a lot of the same things hold true. Just good customer service, good vendor relationship management.
Jake Grossman: Yeah. On the, on that point too, it's funny you say that because when you're on the road and I, if I go into a meeting with my dad or I go on a solo sales trip.
They're more focused on the story of the actual family business than they are actually the product. The product speaks for itself. You, you do a quick pitch on what you're showing them. [00:22:00] The different solutions we could provide, but they're more fascinated with really the story of the family business and when they see us on the road and how much we care for our customers, they really get a sense of the fa, the family fuel.
So that's definitely benefited us in growing the business as a whole.
Matt Horine: Uh, it's a real test to it too, the structure and obviously what your fam family's put into it for a very long time. There's a lot of mid-sized and maybe family owned manufacturers who are. Out there right now and listening, they're actually the backbone of the manufacturing space.
90 plus percent of the manufacturing economy in the United States is a small, medium sized business. If this is what we ask a lot, if you could give advice to other similar type family structures because you seem to manage it so well, who. The folks who are wrestling with tariffs or supply chain risk, or that kind of leadership change, what would it be?
Jake Grossman: Yeah, I think there's three main things here. I think the first would really be embracing change and being quick to adapt, but don't be stuck in your ways. If the world's moving at a really fast pace, be ready to move with it. Or else you're probably gonna get left behind. I think [00:23:00] embracing that change is extremely important.
Secondly, I think going strong in resilient supply chains, especially today, like we spoke about, it's important to have several options. Two options isn't enough anymore. You really need to have four or five, six different spots you could turn to when needed. And lastly, just invest in your relationships, not only the systems, it's important to value the relationships you have.
Treat your customers like family. Treat your suppliers like family, and if you're in a pickle, hopefully they're gonna help you.
Matt Horine: No, that's really great advice. Where can our listeners go to find out more about your, your brand and find out more about potentially doing business with you?
Jake Grossman: EZPZbrands.com.
Matt Horine: That's an easy one to remember. We really enjoyed having you on the show today, and thank you for coming on and telling us all about Easy peasy.
Jake Grossman: Yeah, thanks for having me, Matt. It was great speaking with you.
Matt Horine: Alright to stay ahead of the curve and to help plan your strategy, please check out our [00:26:00] website at www.veryableops.com and under the resources section titled Trump 2.0, where you can see the framework around upcoming policies and how it will impact you and your business. If you're on socials, give us a follow on LinkedIn, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram. And if you're enjoying the podcast, please feel free to follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and leave us a rating and don't forget to subscribe. Thank you again for joining us and learning more about how you can make your way.