Westbrook company to triple workforce to produce PPE

American Roots employees have shifted their focus from making apparel to manufacturing face masks and shields. Courtesy photo

WESTBROOK — Clothing manufacturer American Roots will triple its workforce over the next month to make protective gear in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The company, located in Westbrook’s Dana Warp Mill has produced over 20,000 face shields and 5,000 face masks over the past month. It’s ramping up to produce 5,000 face masks daily.

Ben Waxman, company co-owner with his wife, Whitney Reynolds, said Wednesday that they’ll be he hiring about 75 workers to add to their current workforce of 30.

“We are selling our products to hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living areas, unions, private companies, financial institutions, and our lives are beginning to change as a company,” said Waxman. “God forbid, if the virus lingers, employers and first responders will continue to need these.”

Waxman and Reynolds decided to shift gears last month when Reynolds got sick, suspecting she had contracted the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. While she tested negative for the virus, the company knew things needed to change.

“We were watching this unfold, things across the country began to shut down,” Waxman said. “We made a decision with our board to shut our company down and pay our workers for a week while we evaluated how we can work safely and clean the factory deeply,” Waxman said.

In mid-March, the company laid off 24 of its 30 employees to switch over with a skeleton crew to making personal protective equipment.

“That was the hardest day we had ever had, as we knew the uncertainty of our workers; many are New Mainers,” Waxman said.

Waxman and Reynolds separated work stations with plastic sheeting and marked 6-foot intervals to help employees maintain social distancing using Centers for Disease Control guidelines. By the end of that same week, the demand for personal protective equipment enabled American Roots to rehire its entire workforce.

“Our staff has done an incredible job in adapting to the situation. The entire factory, the look, has changed,” Reynolds said. “There is plastic sheeting hanging from floor to ceiling. It was quite a shock, I’m sure, for many of our employees to walk in and see it, but they feel comforted by the fact that we’ve taken as many precautions as possible and are able to come to a place that feels safe. As soon as they walk in, there is sanitizer, gloves, masks.”

To hire the 75 additional employees, American Roots is working with its partner, Common Threads of Maine, also based out of the mill and run by Waxman’s mother, Dory Waxman. The non-profit Common Threads teaches immigrants industrial sewing skills.

“We had a class that started in January and I ended up shutting down two weeks from graduation,” Dory Waxman said. “I directed them to go to American Roots. They’ve had 10 weeks of training and it’s a good opportunity for them to get gainful employment. They will work through their certificates.”

American Roots is receiving orders from a range of customers across the nation, including locally.

“Not only does a company like American Roots help fill us with some of our lingering PPE needs, they are also good stewards of the community,” said Andrew Turcott, Westbrook fire chief and city health officer.

According to Turcotte, American Roots, along with PHOever Maine owner Truc Huyn, provided the fire department and other nonprofits with much-needed PPE “because their overall mission, despite the fact that they have completely retooled and rebranded, at least temporarily, is to ensure that their products help keep as many people safe as possible during this pandemic.”

For American Roots, the shift to PPE was morally imperative and the company will continue to manufacture the personal safety items as long as they are needed.

“It’s unacceptable how our country was not prepared for our first responders, doctors and nurses. It should not happen again,” Waxman said. “We can blame, point fingers, but it’s time for Americans to step up and take care of each other.