Dive Brief:

• Personal protective equipment makers Shield Manufacturing and Nephron Nitrile are establishing a joint venture, the companies announced this week.
• The joint manufacturing operation will be located at Nephron Nitrile’s 434,000-square-foot facility in West Columbia, South Carolina, according to the release. The facility is on course to feature 14 dipping lines and three cleanrooms by the end of 2025. 
• The joint venture is expected to create more than 500 jobs between the two companies, Andrea Abbott, Nephron Nitrile’s director of marketing, said in an email. Six billion gloves will be produced at Shield’s upcoming Sandersville, Georgia, facility and three billion will be made at Nephron’s factory, each producing goods for both companies. An investment amount was not disclosed.

Dive Insight:

The strategic partnership will enable the two PPE companies to share their product portfolios, which includes exam, industrial, cleanroom, surgical and prophylactic gloves made from nitrile and advanced synthetic materials.

Previously, Shield used a contract manufacturer to produce its PPE. Teaming up with Nephron will bring production closer to the U.S., Abbott said.

“Teaming up with [Nephron Nitrile founder] Lou [Kennedy] and the Nephron team allows us to expand faster with a world-class team and manufacturing plant we can all take pride in,” Shield Manufacturing CEO Alison Bagwell said in a statement.

Nephron Nitrile and Shield Manufacturing have a few things in common. Both are women-owned businesses established in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when the demand for gloves and other PPE rose drastically. 

“Developing medical equipment, especially gloves, has been my life’s work,” Bagwell said in the release. “When I left corporate at the onset of COVID, it was because I saw an opportunity to do things better — to harness technology, data, and AI to deliver the highest quality products at competitive prices.”

The joint venture currently employs over 200 contract workers from Nephron Nitrile’s “historically underutilized business zone” facility location. The HUBZone is a federal program that helps small businesses located in designated areas increase employment opportunities and investment in the localities.

Both companies have grown their footprints by establishing manufacturing facilities in the South. Nephron Nitrile opened its West Columbia manufacturing facility in December 2022. Shield Manufacturing is currently building its first factory, a 200,000-square-foot facility in Sandersville, which is expected to include 20 glove lines, according to the company’s website.

Construction of the Sandersville facility is set to be complete and production is scheduled to begin in 2026, Abbott said. 

As Nephron reaches its production capacity at its West Columbia facility, Shield's Sandersville plant will handle additional customer demand needs, Abbott said in an email.

Shield holds ownership in Nephron’s West Columbia facility and Nephron is expected to hold ownership in Shield’s Sandersville facility once construction is complete, Abbott said.

Shield also grew by acquisition. In March 2023, the company acquired EBW Care Distributors, a Texas-based, woman-owned PPE distributor. The two companies are focusing on building the cleanroom glove facility in the Sandersville plant, according to the 2023 press release.

Nephron Nitrile’s parent company is Nephron Pharmaceuticals, also led by Kennedy, while Shield Manufacturing is its own entity, Abbott said.