Millbury Manfuacturer Knocks The Knockoffs | Foaming at the brush on Latti Farm Road
We’ve all heard the admonition “beware of imitations” so many times that it almost seems foolish, especially now that the once dreaded “imitation” products sport quality on par, or nearly on par, with industry standards in many cases.
However, the folks at JEN Manufacturing Inc. in the tiny, quiet Millbury Industrial Park just off Route 20 on Latti Farm Road know that their product is far superior to the imitators and they’ve got NASA to back them up.
Brush Off
In the past half century JEN has sold nearly 4 billion disposable foam paint brushes. Currently, the company sells between 75 million and 100 million brushes every year.
JEN’s founder John Chisolm invented the disposable foam brush about 50 years ago and began manufacturing them in Worcester. Today, the company occupies 62,000 square feet in the first building built in the Millbury Industrial Park. Every piece of machinery in the facility is proprietary and the only component of the brushes the company buys from outside are the wood handles. The foam brush heads and the polyethylene inserts that give them their rigidity are all made in-house.
The result is a one-piece brush that, while disposable, will last much longer than an imitation. Gerald Gendron, the company’s owner, has a particular dislike for Chinese imitations, which are much cheaper than a JEN brush, but are three-piece designs and held together only by tiny plastic fasteners.
Gendron said JEN pared down to its current employee level of slightly more than 40 two or three years ago, just as the “China influx” was gaining momentum.
To Infinity And Beyond
But the company “is gaining ground,” he said. JEN brushes are sold in Ace and True Value hardware stores. The company also sees a significant number of its brushes exported to Europe and Australia. Home Depot may begin carrying JEN brushes soon after more than a year of negotiations. “They put you through quite a process,” Gendron said. “We’re confident, but not overconfident.”
He said if JEN lands a contract with Home Depot, the company would begin hiring again.
And Home Depot wouldn’t be the only giant corporation to vouch for JEN’s quality. ATK Thiokol, an aerospace propulsion giant responsible for portions of the NASA space shuttle program has heaped praise upon JEN brushes, which it uses to apply chemicals to rocket booster components.
The ATK and NASA honors are proudly displayed in JEN’s lobby, and according to Gendron, ATK executives visited the plant and met all the company’s employees as part of a grand thank-you.
“They came to say thank you for making a product that has consistent quality and performance,” Gendron said.
Now, a word about the company’s name.
It’s easy to assume, as I did when I met Gendron that JEN Manufacturing Inc. is named for Gendron himself. But it is not. Chisolm named the company JEN after himself, John, his wife Elva and their daughter Nancy. Only by coincidence did Gendron marry Nancy Chisolm and later take over the business from his father-in-law.
Today, Gendron spends winters in Naples, Fla., with his wife while their son Jeff runs the business.
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