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Attends Company News
May 29, 2010
Local economy starting to show signs of life
A return to 40-hour workweeks, industrial construction, and hiring announcements are signals of a rebounding local economy, employers and business experts said. Nineteen months after the nation’s real estate collapse and financial crisis froze capital expenditures and dropped demand for consumer goods, manufacturers are seeing an increase in product orders, employment is edging up and industries are making plans to hire.
“The recession slowed some things down but (business) people are still looking at Pitt County,” said Kelly Andrews, whose work at the Pitt County Development Commission involves recruiting manufacturers and distributorships along with helping researchers bring their discoveries to market. There have been layoffs in certain industries but innovations are encouraging manufacturers to open shop. “Technology may initially mean some companies don’t need as much work force,” Andrews said. But efficiently operated industries will draw business, she said, and industries with increased orders do eventually need more workers.
Looking Ahead
Attends Healthcare, a producer of adult incontinence products, fits that mold. The company, which employs about 300 people in Greenville, plans to hire between 20-25 people annually over the next three to four years, raising its work force to about 400 at the company’s facility on Old Creek Road, said Michael Fagan, Attends president and chief executive officer. When Fagan joined Attends in 2006, the Greenville facility employed 250 people and was “literally running out of money,” he said. The business nearly closed its doors. Fagan and other corporate officers looked at the business, market trends and their competitors and saw untapped potential. “We were really fortunate that we were modernizing and becoming very cost efficient just before this economic downturn in the fall of 2008,” Fagan said. After securing capital to upgrade machinery and implementing cuts in employee salaries and benefits, the company started expanding its market and making money. Managers promoted a mind set of collective improvement in the production process which improved production efficiency and kept costs down, Fagan said. While Attends was stepping up production, world oil prices were rising and the U.S. dollar was weakening, increasing the cost of imports and shutting out Attends’ potential foreign competitors, Fagan said. When the nation’s financial market problems froze credit, the company’s domestic competitors couldn’t secure financing to upgrade equipment and improve production rates, which Attends had already done. The result is that since 2007 the company will have gained $100 million in sales, Fagan said, and is predicting $250 million in sales in the coming year. Between now and 2020, Attends predicts demand for its products will increase by 79 percent because between 8,000 to 10,000 people will be turning 65 every day in the United States.
Click below for full-length local Greenville, NC newspaper article…
http://www.reflector.com/news/local-economy-shows-signs-life-36774
March 25, 2010
Attends Healthcare Products awarded for market share growth
Attends Healthcare Products, Inc., today announced it is a recipient of a 2010 GHX Best-in-Class Award in the Adult Incontinence category. Best-in-Class status is determined through a combination of year-over-year market share growth and total market share through year-end 2009. The winners will be honored at the 10th Annual GHX Supply Chain Summit in Orlando March 29-31, 2010.
"We are very excited and pleased to be recognized by GHX," said Matt Zielinski, vice president of Marketing at Attends. "Our strategy and focus over the past few years has been on helping our customers grow their businesses by providing them with the products, tools and programs necessary to exceed consumer expectations. As their businesses have benefited and grown, we have enjoyed the accompanying increase in share."
Attends Healthcare Products was among the 31 leading medical-surgical product manufacturers recognized by GHX in six market segments and 35 product categories, ranging from electrosurgical products to microbiology reagents. Winners were determined using GHX Market Intelligence reports that analyze national distributed sales transaction data.
February 23, 2010
Attends Healthcare Products named local Industry of the Year
Attends Healthcare Products has earned the 2009-10 Industry of the Year award, a distinction given annually by the Pitt County Development Commission. “In a year when many companies have been struggling just to stay alive, worried about layoffs or taking care of those who have been laid off, Attends has been a very different kind of place,” Wanda Yuhas, executive director of the development commission, said.
Attends produces, distributes and markets disposable medical products used by hospitals, long-term care facilities and the growing home-care market. It pioneered the disposable adult incontinence market—a constantly growing portion of its business, President and CEO Michael Fagan said. Six businesses of varying size were nominated for the award this year from the 100 manufacturers located in Pitt County. The vetting process began before the Christmas holidays, Yuhas said, and concluded with a vote by the 15-member board last month. “They exemplified commitment to human sustainability, social sustainability, economic sustainability and environmental sustainability,” Commission Chairman Todd Edwards said.
During a tour of the facility Tuesday, Fagan reflected on how far the company has come since he and Chief Financial Officer Todd Browder took over nearly four years ago. He described midnight calls to lock up and liquidate, taxes that went unpaid, and scaling back entitlements and benefits for employees. “When we started the journey, it was the desperation of ... how are we going to get through tomorrow?” Fagan explained. “(Now) we do not waste anything and we’re always trying to make it better.” Things have turned around so much that this year Attends was able to begin sharing that success with the community. Attends gave $10,000 to the Pitt County School Dropout Prevention Program and made a $25,000 commitment to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Eastern N.C. The company also provides support for East Carolina University student-athletes and internships at the company. The local manufacturing facility houses the company’s corporate headquarters, and Fagan anticipates revenues will continue to grow, particularly as baby boomers age during the next 35 to 40 years.
Click below for full-length local Greenville, NC newspaper article regarding this announcement…
http://www.reflector.com/news/attends-named-business-year-24483
or Click here for local news coverage...
http://www.witn.com/news/headlines/85119617.html
December 18, 2009
Attends Healthcare Products grants wish of critically ill boy
A once nearly bankrupt Greenville business is granting a Christmas wish for a once critically ill boy. Attends Healthcare Products Inc. is sending 7-year-old Terrence Hooks Jr. and his family to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., during the Christmas holiday. The company is doing so through a $25,000 donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Eastern North Carolina. “Collectively, as a company we’ve been very fortunate with our turn-around and prosperity, and we wanted to give back to the community that serves our employees,” said Michael Fagan, company president and chief executive officer. The gift will fund wishes for Terrence and three other children, said Ziva Starr Raney, the location foundation’s president and CEO.
Terrence, accompanied by his parents, Terrence Sr. and April Hooks, and younger brother, Jeremiah, traveled to Attends’ Old Creek Road facility Friday morning via Greenville Fire-Rescue’s purple fire truck to offer his thanks. “It’s been fantastic. It’s like a dream come true,” April Hooks said. “For such a positive thing to come from what was such a tough situation in the beginning.” During the Attends celebration, Terrence learned he was the 2,000th child to have a wish granted by the eastern N.C. foundation and received additional gifts from the group including a kid-size suitcase and travel pillow.
Click below for full-length local Greenville, NC newspaper article regarding this announcement...
http://www.reflector.com/news/critically-ill-boy-getting-his-wish-18596
August 27, 2009
Attends Healthcare Products, Inc. reaches two noteworthy safety milestones
Attends Healthcare Products, Inc. ("Attends") is pleased to announce that its employees have reached two noteworthy safety milestones.
- On July 11, 2009, Attends Healthcare Products, Inc. surpassed 2 million safe work hours, and four years without an injury resulting in time lost from work.
- On May 21, 2009, Attends Healthcare Products went one year without a recordable injury according to the NC Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordability guidelines.
Shelby Horne, Health and Safety Manager at Attends Healthcare, attributes these results to the safety culture being supported by all employees, beginning with Michael Fagan, CEO. Mr. Fagan’s position is clear: "nothing we do is worth getting hurt." Additionally, Mrs. Horne states that the safety systems at Attends Healthcare Products focus on injury prevention and continuous improvement.
July 7, 2009
Attends Healthcare Products, Inc. announces consolidation of manufacturing operations
Attends Healthcare Products, Inc. (“Attends”) announced today the consolidation of its west coast manufacturing operations into its Greenville, North Carolina facility. The consolidation allows Attends to capitalize on recent investments in the modernization of its manufacturing platforms in the Greenville, NC facility. As a result of the consolidation, the La Verne, California manufacturing plant will be closed by December 31, 2009.
Michael E. Fagan, Chief Executive Officer, said “This initiative supports our business development by standardizing our product assortment, continuing our commitment to quality, and improving customer service. The change is the next step in Attends’ efforts to meet the evolving requirements of the adult incontinence category, and continues our journey as being a leading supplier of both branded and private label products for the institutional and consumer product marketplaces.”
Click below for local Greenville, NC, newspaper article regarding this announcement…
http://www.reflector.com/news/attends-consolidation-may-mean-new-jobs-in-area-706689.html
August 1, 2007
PaperPak Products, Inc. officially changed its name to Attends Healthcare Products, Inc.
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