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Entrepreneurial Siblings Expand Family Business Into New Markets

Entrepreneurial Siblings Expand Family Business Into New Markets, Driving 42 % Revenue Surge in 2025

CLEVELAND, November 28, 2025—Sibling co-CEOs Daniel and Sarah Liu today announced that Liu Industries Inc. has closed a landmark expansion into three Asia-Pacific markets, posting a 42 % year-over-year revenue increase and positioning the family-owned precision-parts maker as one of the fastest-growing mid-market manufacturers in the Great Lakes region.

The move marks the first overseas venture for the 240-employee company founded in 1954 by their grandfather, a Chinese immigrant machinist. By combining a targeted acquisition in Vietnam with new e-commerce storefronts aimed at Australian and Japanese buyers, the duo added USD 18 million in new sales during the first three quarters of 2025—growth that outpaced the industry average of 11 %, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.

“Our family has always solved problems with grit and ingenuity,” said Daniel Liu, 34, who oversees operations. “Sarah and I asked ourselves what Grandfather would do with today’s tools: the answer was to look beyond our ZIP code and build relationships where our parts matter most.”

The expansion follows a disciplined governance model increasingly common among multi-generational firms. A five-member family council—three siblings and two independent directors—must approve any transaction exceeding USD 3 million, ensuring new ventures align with the company’s lean-manufacturing heritage. That structure helped the Lius secure a USD 12 million growth-capital facility from JPMorgan Chase’s Middle Market Banking division in July, funds earmarked for tooling, warehouse automation, and inventory in Ho Chi Minh City.

Market timing also worked in their favor. A record 60 % of mid-size family businesses worldwide now pursue acquisitions to enter new geographies, KPMG’s Global Family Business Report 2025 shows, with European and North American firms leading the push into Asia. “Private-capital markets are gravitating toward family companies that can demonstrate both operational resilience and next-gen vision,” said report co-author Marije van Hattem. Read the full analysis here.

Digital strategy played an equally critical role. By integrating real-time inventory data with Alibaba.com and Amazon Business, Liu Industries reduced average customer lead time from 14 to 6 days, a differentiator that helped the firm secure contracts with two Japanese robotics OEMs worth USD 4.3 million annually. The company also launched a multilingual chatbot trained on 20 years of CAD drawings, cutting pre-sale engineering queries by 38 % and freeing sales engineers to focus on high-margin custom work.

“We didn’t just ship parts overseas; we shipped our culture—on-time delivery, lifetime metallurgical warranties, and open-book costing,” added Sarah Liu, 32, who leads strategy and finance. “That transparency resonated in markets where supply-chain reliability is still recovering from pandemic shocks.”

Looking ahead, the siblings plan to replicate their playbook in India and Indonesia by 2027 while exploring complementary additive-manufacturing capabilities. Analysts see runway: the Asia-Pacific industrial components market is forecast to grow at a 7.8 % CAGR through 2030, outpacing both North America and Europe, according to Oxford Economics trade data.

About Liu Industries Inc.

Cleveland-based Liu Industries is a third-generation, ISO-certified manufacturer of precision-machined components for transportation, medical-device, and automation OEMs. Founded in 1954, the company operates two U.S. plants and one facility in Vietnam, serving more than 220 customers across 18 countries.