Merit Manufacturing started manufacturing personal care products out of a passion for the skincare industry and a belief that we could build something the market hadn’t seen before. As a new startup, we looked at the customer service that businesses were receiving from the major manufacturers and it was so impersonal. If we could find a way to grow a manufacturing business that didn’t lose sight of the end user, that took real ownership of the products that we made–even if they had someone else’s name on them—we would attract a community of customers that were different. 

As it exists today, Merit formed in 2017 in a small warehouse in Macomb, Michigan—a suburb of Detroit. We started with just one production line and over time we had to expand to add a fulfillment warehouse, and an overflow storage warehouse, because our space just couldn’t keep up with the growth. 

We thought our first holiday season was crazy. We hired warehouse managers and fulfillment specialists as fast as we could. We were shipping out a few hundred packages a day to customers and we thought that was a big deal. Every year the holidays get busier and busier, but we’re happy to say we’ve gotten much better at managing the scale. 

In 2018 we moved into a new warehouse and manufacturing facility in Sterling Heights, and in the summer of 2020, we moved our manufacturing into a second new warehouse just around the corner. This allowed us to expand our production to more than 4 different production lines, plus several solid product lines, and we’re continuing to expand today so that we’re always able to keep up with he scale of our customers. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we were dedicated to keeping our employees safe and providing as many stable jobs as we could. We converted all our manufacturing to start making hand sanitizer for hospitals, first responders, and essential businesses, and we were able to work with our existing customers to keep their businesses stable and growing during this time. While it was difficult, through our efforts we ended up having to hire more people on by the end of the summer to support the growth of the company. We are thankful for the trust of our team members and their dedication during this period, and we hope to be able to continue to provide for them into the future. 

Merit has come a long way over the years. We’ve learned important lessons about how to best serve our customers and the value and talents of our team. We truly love the work that we do, especially when things are busy, and we are excited to see what the next year brings us.