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V O L . X X V I N O. X I M AY 1 8 , 2 0 2 0 18 S M A L L B U S I N E S S I n mid-March, Allen Manufacturing Inc. in Lewiston converted all of its production to make face shields and non-medical cotton face masks. Founded in 1975 as Fancy Stitchers, the com- pany at its peak had 550 employees producing 86,000 leather handbags every week. In 2011, under its current owner David Allen, the company was renamed Allen Manufacturing and expanded to contract sewing, die cutting, light assembly and kitting. Output in the 15,000-square-foot facility is prodigious: Many large customers contract thousands of units, produced by a team of 12 employees. Allen already had health care-related contracts for hospital bed parts and duffle bags for temporary hospital wall parts. He turned to face shields and face masks when he was contacted by the owners of Fabric Warehouse in Auburn. "Tim and Chris Riley from Fabric Warehouse asked me if I could cut fabric for face mask kits," Allen says. "ey brought the material and we started cut- ting. At some point, they said, 'Why don't you make the facemasks?'" Since then, Allen has deployed his team to cut fabric and elastic bands for the masks, hired about 80 home stitchers and sold over 40,000 masks, almost at cost. He's also partnered with Fabric Warehouse to make face shields — clear plastic panels attached to headbands that provide full-face coverage. Fabric Warehouse sup- plies materials and Allen provides labor. Production is about 5,000 shields per week, with weekly capacity for 20,000. ose sell for a slight markup, says Allen. "We didn't start this to make money," he says. "We started this to provide a service to the community and to keep my employees employed and to pay the light bill." Allen Manufacturing is one of numerous manu- facturers, distilleries and breweries that, since March, turned from normal production runs to make health- care products like hand sanitizer, aerosol boxes, face guards and non-medical facemasks. Much of the work is done in partnership with the University of Maine, which formed an "innovation team" to develop solutions to the shortages of supplies and challenges faced by Maine's health care centers since the beginning of the pandemic (see sidebar). e team includes the Maine Manufacturers Extension Partnership and Manufacturers Association of Maine, which sent out calls to members for help and maintain COVID-19 resource webpages that include companies producing resources, DIY mask- making instructions and more. (Links are on their home pages.) P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY F O C U S Allen Manufacturing Inc. Allen Manufacturing Inc. in Lewiston, in Lewiston, partnering with partnering with Fabric Warehouse Fabric Warehouse in in Auburn, is making face shields and Auburn, is making face shields and non-medical face masks as part of non-medical face masks as part of the fight against COVID-19. Pictured the fight against COVID-19. Pictured is a worker at Allen Manufacturing. is a worker at Allen Manufacturing. We didn't start this to make money. — David Allen Allen Manufacturing Inc. Manufacturers, distilleries, breweries restructure production B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r

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