PPB June 2020

Br ave Leade r s says. “We didn’t hear any negativity. With over 100 people involved, everyone was really complimentary. They understood we put this together in two weeks.” During this year’s conference, the company held an award ceremony to recognize suppliers in a range of categories, including Supplier of the Year, Supplier Representative of the Year and Supplier Account Executive of the Year. A number of account executives were also recognized for their personal accomplishments in the 2019 sales year, with Vernon naming its top 10 salespeople based on commissions, Rising Stars and President’s Award recipients, and several other awards. The decision to continue hosting the conference, albeit in a virtual space, was one intended to keep morale and engagement high among staff and supplier partners, and to ensure the notable achievements of professionals were still recognized in a memorable way, despite the obvious change in location from charming Charleston to their own home offices. JEFFREY MAYER CEO, LBU, Inc. Paterson, New Jersey While the country adapted to widespread changes brought forth by coronavirus, Jeffrey Mayer, CEO of supplier LBU, Inc. in Paterson, New Jersey, —a manufacturing company he started 30 years ago at the age of 15, on a street corner in New York City—knew that he had to act fast. The supplier, which works out of and owns a 130-year-old, 40,000-square-foot factory to produce custom bags—tote bags, backpacks, cosmetic bags, duffle bags—pillows and aprons, is located near the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., and Mayer knew the gravity of the need for personal protective equipment. The LBU, Inc. team was also aware that it faced the risk of being shut down. After receiving a request from a distributor serving the health-care industry for barrier gowns and face masks, Mayer realized that with the sewing equipment already in place to make these products, he could retrofit the company’s operations to focus on personal protective equipment—and keep the business going. Once the decision was made and special materials were ordered—elastic for the masks, barrier fabric for hospital gowns, etc.—within 48 hours the entire factory had been completely repurposed and was ready to roll. “It was very scary in early March when we were threatened to be shut down,” says Mayer. “We quickly switched over to building PPE to avoid being shuttered and do a great service for our country at the same time. The ultimate win-win.” A team of more than 800 sewing operators are hand-sewing the masks; a process that takes about four minutes per mask. “These are jobs that absolutely would have been lost if we didn’t quickly repurpose the factory,” says Mayer, of his staff. And since the factory was first retrofitted, production has grown three-fold from 100,000 reusable cloth masks and gowns per week in March to more than 350,000 units per week by early May for industries including health care, retail stores, hotels, nursing homes, police departments, supermarkets and many Fortune 500 companies. To let end users know the source of manufacturing is USA- made, all masks feature a USA-made flag in the bottom right-hand corner, unless the client requests otherwise, “so everyone can see that whoever is buying those masks is promoting U.S. businesses and jobs,” Mayer says. By mid-May, LBU, Inc. was running a seven-day production schedule, which Mayer admits isn’t easy, but he says he’s beyond proud of his team. “Everyone here is going above and beyond and doing a remarkable job through this pandemic, and [with] a very stressful workload that is being required of them,” he says. “I am humbled and blessed to have such a devoted team and to be able to keep everyone employed!” Danielle Renda is associate editor of PPB. “These are jobs that absolutely would have been lost if we didn’t quickly repurpose the factory.” — JEFFREY MAYER | JUNE 2020 | 17 INNOVATE