{"id":2393,"date":"2026-06-27T19:41:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T19:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2393"},"modified":"2026-06-27T19:41:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T19:41:34","slug":"this-rural-maine-factory-made-100-million-covid-swabs-a-month-its-ceo-says-manufacturings-best-days-are-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2393","title":{"rendered":"This rural Maine factory made 100 million COVID swabs a month. Its CEO says manufacturing\u2019s best days are ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>We are incredibly fortunate to be Americans. As a lifelong Mainer, hardly the epicenter of American society, I count myself blessed for the economic opportunities that hardworking people can still find to get ahead. Despite our socioeconomic challenges in a changing world, the U.S. economy is still\u00a0<em>the\u00a0<\/em>standard for the rest of the globe. While other countries face political instability, civic unrest, and double-digit unemployment rates, our economy continues to innovate and grow. There are\u00a0nearly eight million open jobs\u00a0in the United States\u2014a testament to entrepreneurship and business dynamism.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2391\">SpaceX, Charter discussed mobile phone partnership in U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>No business community is more dynamic than manufacturing. From the Industrial Revolution to post-World War II globalization and current debates about tariff rates, manufacturers have consistently found themselves in the spotlight or under scrutiny. And yet, we persevere. Our perseverance as an economic sector is unprecedented, providing the entire economy with the strongest possible backbone.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In so many ways, manufacturing\u00a0<em>is\u00a0<\/em>the U.S. economy. Domestic manufacturers\u00a0contribute\u00a0nearly $3 trillion in economic output, accounting for about 10 percent of gross domestic product and employing well over 12 million workers. This is a greater impact than the entire economy of Canada or Russia or South Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Much has been made of manufacturing\u2019s demise in recent decades, but manufacturers remain alive and well. Our \u201cMade in the USA\u201d story is still being written. I know firsthand: My family\u2019s company, Maine-based Puritan Medical Products, became North America\u2019s largest supplier of COVID-19 testing swabs during the pandemic, hiring and training hundreds of workers to produce up to 100 million swabs a month for Americans in need. Today, we are a trusted domestic manufacturer of swabs and single-use specimen collection devices for healthcare, diagnostics, forensics, controlled environments, and environmental sciences. We source American inputs and we make our products in rural Maine, nowhere else.<\/p>\n<p>Puritan\u2019s story is just one of countless examples. From Guilford, Maine to the West Coast, every $1 spent in manufacturing\u00a0generates nearly $3 in additional economic activity\u00a0across other sectors. This multiplier effect means jobs, jobs, and jobs, but also something more: A brighter future for workers and their families. It means living the American Dream.<\/p>\n<p>Today, countless millions of people are living their dreams because of manufacturing, despite negative headlines and constant chatter that U.S.-made products have no future. To the contrary, manufacturing firms like Puritan are looking for even more human talent to write our sector\u2019s next chapter. There are currently\u00a0about 500,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs, many of them in rural states like Maine. Despite the rise of artificial intelligence, we still need human capital from Maine or \u201cfrom away\u201d (as Mainers say) to write that chapter.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2389\">Forget the ceasefire \u2014 The U.S. and Iran are still exchanging attacks over the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran tries to shut down a competing route<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>There is always a next chapter. Manufacturing isn\u2019t declining; we are adapting, evolving, and innovating. I don\u2019t see a \u201chollowed out\u201d Maine. For a company like ours, it means an aggressive expansion of liquid transport systems and entering the industrial disposable market. For another business, it may mean securing our national defense or taking AI development to the next level.<\/p>\n<p>Each passing day brings dozens of headlines about AI investments, but innovation is not confined to Silicon Valley. Our home base of Guilford has a population of barely 1,000, and it doesn\u2019t stop us from serving global customers.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>How many other stories like that can be told? Too many to count.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>If America is going to survive another 250 years, that won\u2019t happen without manufacturing. The birth of our great nation basically coincides with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, which came to our shores\u00a0before the turn of the 18th century. The first permanent cotton-spinning mill was established in Pawtucket, Rhode Island\u00a0dating back to 1790. This was during George Washington\u2019s first presidential term.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Manufacturing isn\u2019t only the strongest backbone of America\u2019s economy; it is one with American history. Reports of our death are greatly exaggerated. We are just getting started.<\/p>\n<p><em>The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of <\/em>Fortune<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2387\">\u2018It\u2019s not going away\u2019: The Stanford economist who called the AI entry-level jobs crisis early has the receipts<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CEO of Puritan Medical Products argues that on America&#8217;s 250th birthday, manufacturing isn&#8217;t declining \u2014 it&#8217;s an underappreciated growth story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-250-years-of-innovation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>This rural Maine factory made 100 million COVID swabs a month. 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