Leafilter

are diverted over LeafFilter’s sub- tle drip edge. Now the person: Kaulig had worked for a remodeling company for several years in Akron, Ohio, before quitting his job, back in 2005, to become one of 91 national LeafFilter dealers. “I started working out of my house,” he recounts. “I figured with such a great prod- uct, and nobody in Ohio was really selling it, I could make more money if I just started my own business. I didn’t actually start the LeafFilter Company; I started as a contrac- tor, and my company was called LeafFilter North. You would sign up as an authorized dealer and they would sell you the prod- uct. I was good at selling it, and what hap- pened is we started expanding, we started getting bigger.” In 2008, Kaulig opened three more offic- es – one in Pittsburgh, PA, one in Toledo, OH, and one in Columbus, OH. “So, then I had four branch locations and we did $5.4 million in business,” he says. “That allowed us to keep expanding and I just kept taking over territo- ries. We had seven offices in 2009 and at the LEAFFILTER end of that year, I wanted to go to Chicago, but the manufacturers said that we couldn’t go to Chicago because there were already four dealers there. So, we had to make a de- cision - and they had to make a decision - be- cause I didn’t want to stop growing and I didn’t want to be locked out of certain cities. So, in January 2010, I started a distribution business where the manufacturer had to sell to me, and then we sold the product to the contractors. In essence, I bought the business.” Today, Kaulig owns all of LeafFilter. “I’ve since taken over all the manufacturing; I own all the patents, the trademarks, all the stores. I’ve taken over all the dealerships; so now there’s only one LeafFilter dealer,” he ex- claims. “I’ve got 40 offices in the U.S. and Can- ada, and so, I own the whole thing. The only place to buy LeafFilter, worldwide, is from me, and we’re just one operation that keeps get- ting bigger. We did $100 million in business, last year; we’ll do $170 million this year. At last count, we had 1,050 employees.” “Our growth has been mind blowing,” Kaulig continues. “We’ve opened an office a month for the last nine months. We plan on going to Tampa Bay in August and then we’re opening up in Albany, New York at the end of August. And we are developing new products. We’ve got a product development team that is