Scott Wellman, general manager of Puritan Medical Products, brought along Maine-brewed Bissell Brothers beer as an offering to local officials in Tennessee.
But it was Tennessee officials that rolled out the welcome mat for the Guilford-based maker of swabs used in COVID-19 tests.
It s been a whirlwind past year for Puritan, which had already received more than $140 million in government funding to establish factories to produce millions of swabs. It has already built out two factories in Pittsfield to supplement production at its Guilford plant. Earlier this spring, the federal government awarded Puritan another $146.8 million under the Defense Production Act of 1950 to establish a factory that would be more centrally located in the U.S.
Puritan grows southward: Workforce, incentives made Tennessee 'right fit' for expansion mainebiz.biz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mainebiz.biz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Puritan Medical Products Co., the Guilford-based manufacturer that has multiplied its COVID-19 test swab production there and in Pittsfield over the past year, is heading south to open a fourth manufacturing facility.
The Department of Defense announced this week it has awarded Puritan a $146.8 million contract to expand swab production with the creation of a new plant in Orlinda, Tenn.
The contract, a modification of a previous agreement with the DoD, will allow Puritan to renovate an existing facility in Orlinda, about 45 minutes north of Nashville and just south of the Kentucky border. With the additional capacity, Puritan is expected to turn out a total of 250 million foam-tip swabs a month by February 2022, according to a news release.