V O L . X X V I I N O. V I
M A R C H 2 2 , 2 0 2 1 10
S
cott Wellman, Puritan Medical
Products Co.'s interim general
manager, helped oversee the
Guilford-based company's push to
more than double in size and increase
manufacturing of swabs to help diag-
nose COVID during the pressure of
the pandemic. Puritan received $140
million in federal money to boost
production of swabs used in COVID
tests. Puritan worked with Cianbro
to find and build out factory spaces
in Pittsfield. en it turned to Bath
Iron Works to develop the machinery
needed in the factories. All this was
done at a warp-speed pace to meet
the need for COVID tests. Now, the
company faces its first expansion out-
side of New England and increased
demand for in-home testing supplies.
Mainebiz: Did anything stand out
as especially hard about the past
year or was it all just an impossible
year?
Scott Wellman: I jokingly about half-
way through last year started referring
to every day as 'Blursday.' It kind of
became that. We had one big proj-
ect or challenge that we were trying
to finish that bled into another one.
A driving force for
manufacturing of COVID
testing swabs
Scott Wellman of Puritan Medical Products led major expansion in 2020
B y J e s s i c a H a l l
P H O T O / T I M G E E N WAY
LARGE COMPANY
BUSINESS LEADER
Scott Wellman
Interim general manager,
Puritan Medical Products Co.
Scott Wellman, interim
general manager of
Puritan Medical Products
Co., helped oversee the
company's push to more
than double in size and
increase manufacturing of
swabs to help diagnose
COVID during the pressure
of the pandemic.
Puritan Medical
Products Co.
puritanmedproducts.com
31 School St., P.O. Box 149, Guilford
What it does: Manufactures more
than 1,200 medical products,
including the specialized swabs
used to diagnose COVID-19
Founded: 1919
Employees: About 1,300
Sales: $45 million
(before pandemic)
