Supply Side

Being a company that solves supply chain problems was just what the doctor(s) ordered when COVID-19 hit in 2020. But for SLI Medical in Novi, being in the right place at the right time brought challenges.

The company was founded in 2013 as an outgrowth of SLI — an automotive company with the same mission, which opened its doors the previous year.

“We saw a void in the medical supply space and learned how to address it,” says Josh Kaplan, president of SLI Medical. “That’s essentially rethinking the way medical supplies go to doctors’ offices, hospitals, state governments, and the federal government.”

The secret, according to Kaplan, is buying products all over the world. “We specialize in going directly to the OEMs, whether it be automotive or medical, and being able to source from them.”

SLI Medical was bringing it about $1 million per year in revenue before the pandemic. Once the virus hit U.S. shores in early 2020, opportunities began to open up.

“When COVID-19 hit, we were able to solve problems for some of the largest hospital systems in the country,” Kaplan says. “The way the medical supply system was set up, it wasn’t agile enough to react to COVID-19.”

During those hectic early pandemic days, the automotive side of the business ebbed, so those employees moved over to the medical side to avoid layoffs. From there, the company saw its revenue spike to $100 million per year during the height of the pandemic.

Kaplan recalls his team working 22 hours a day to ensure frontline health care workers were protected. In one instance, if SLI didn’t deliver an order to a children’s hospital by 10 a.m. the next day, the facility wouldn’t have been able to open.

“Even though it was hectic and exhausting, the value gained during this time was measured by the fulfillment of being able to help frontline health care providers rather than monetary gains,” says Kaplan, who expects earnings to settle in at about $30 million annually for the medical side of the business and around $20 million for the automotive side as the pandemic eases.

The SLI story began with two people in a 2,000-square-foot office in Commerce Township and a $50,000 seed loan from Hebrew Free Loans. The company now has 28 full-time employees who work out of a 15,000-square-foot warehouse in Novi, 12,000 square feet of which is occupied by medical goods.

“The problems are massive and it feels good to solve a problem and sell a product that’s in such dire need by so many people at the right price,” Kaplan says.