4 Hartford Business Journal • May 18, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com
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earlier on and had a bit more foresight, I don't
think we would have gotten into the backlog
of PPE issues that we had," he said.
Warning Signs
Gerber is a key employer in Tolland, a small
bucolic town of 15,000 people in the shadow of
UConn's Storrs campus.
The company, which is owned by New
York private equity firm American Industrial
Partners, employs about 300 people at its
24 Industrial Park Road West headquarters,
where it consolidated its Connecticut opera-
tions about a decade ago.
Gerber is among Tolland's five largest em-
ployers and one of the town's largest property
taxpayers.
But of course, the company is a global operator.
In fact, it initially received inquiries from
Asian manufactur-
ers looking to retool
their production
lines to help boost
that continent's PPE
stockpile amid the
pandemic (Gerber has
a development center
in Shanghai).
By the time similar
hails started coming
from U.S. producers,
Gerber had already
formed an internal
team of 20 top execu-
tives and experts to
respond. They devel-
oped a prepackaged
set of PPE cutting
patterns and equip-
ment settings to help manufacturers get up
and running. The aim is to help them do it
efficiently, without wasting excess material
through trial-and-error.
Gerber also recently began selling conver-
sion kits to help end users further improve
PPE production and capacity. Marano declined
to provide the kit's price, which also includes
consulting services.
The kits help overcome some of the techni-
cal hurdles to making PPE, which involves lay-
ering different materials together. In addition,
the fabrics used can contain polyester, making
them challenging to cut.
The cutting knife must be kept cool, or the
material can melt together, wasting time and
resources. Keeping the knife cool can be achieved
by using the right speed settings and chilling the
blade with cold air during the cutting process.
Gerber's conversion kits also help keep ma-
terials sturdy during the cutting process.
>> Town Profile continued
Tolland
General
Land area (sq. miles) 40
Median age 42
Population 15,037
Median household income $112,740
Unemployment rate 2.60%
Major Employers
Town of Tolland
Woodlake at Tolland
CNC Software
Gerber Scientific
Big Y supermarket
Housing stock
Median price $286,600
Median rent $1,571
Government
Total revenue (2017) $64,133,352
Per capita tax $2,950
Actual mill rate 36.05
Grand List $1,278,468,008
Economy
Top employment industries Units Employment
Total government 18 735
Health care and
social assistance 40 669
Manufacturing 16 464
Top taxpayers (2018)
Eversource $15,595,270
Capitol Ventures $13,848,900
Gerber Internatonal $8,397,870
Source: AdvanceCT
PHOTO
|
CONTRIBUTED
A fabric containing plastic is laid out on a Gerber cutter.
Cutting PPE materials can be tricky because they can
melt if subjected to too much heat, so Gerber
recently began offering conversion kits that
include a chiller to keep the blade cool.
