Since it was founded in 1998, Monadnock Non-Wovens, LLC, has grown from a company employing about 10 people with one production line to a manufacturer with more than 80 full-time employees on the verge of having a sixth production line installed.

Its parent company, Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc., the oldest continuous running paper mill in the United States built on the banks of the Contoocook River in New Hampshire in 1819, wanted to expand its business with Hoover, the vacuum cleaner manufacturer.

“In 1998, Hoover was looking for somebody that could supply non-woven materials, so we were created by the paper mill to make the non-wovens,” said Keith Hayward, managing director of the non-woven division.

“Originally, the paper mill supplied the paper and we supplied the non-woven material to form the composite that went off to make Hoover’s vacuum bags,” he said.

When Monadnock Non-Wovens opened in 1998, vacuum bags accounted for 100 percent of the company’s business. However, as vacuum industry technology changed and bags were less used, the

company expanded its product lines to include air filtration for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as face masks, bacteria barriers, liquid filtration and some consumer goods.

It’s these uses that have allowed the company to continue to grow.

“We’ve added a number of machines and in the last four years we’ve doubled our output and the plan is to double our output again in the next four years,” Hayward said.

Monadnock Non-Wovens was founded in Stroudsburg, but two years later was relocated to Mount Pocono where the plant still operates today.

“While all of the materials are manufactured in Mount Pocono, they are shipped to Europe and Asia, but mostly throughout North America. We also ship to Canada and Mexico. We see great growth opportunities, particularly in Mexico and South America,” Hayward said.

Speaking about changes that have taken place since the company opened, Hayward said, “The process that we’re using to manufacture our non-woven polypropylene material is essentially the same as it was 10 or 15 years ago. The important changes are process changes to make it more efficient, to

drive the cost down, to use less energy for the same amount of product that you’re producing, potentially reducing the cost, but most importantly doing the same work.”

To help drive down costs, Monadnock has made significant improvements with control of lighting and temperature throughout the mill. “We now reuse

Monadnock Non-Wovens continues to expand production capabilities

Monadnock Non-Wovens, LLC, founded in 1998, has been located in Mount Pocono since 2000

Keith Hayward, managing director of Monadnock Non-Wovens, displays some of the

products manufactured in Mount Pocono.

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our heat that we generate from our manufacturing process to heat the whole of our building. So we have no external heating whatsoever,” he said.

Speaking about adjustments made throughout the company’s growth, Hayward said, “When you add 60 or 70 people to the employment roster of a small company, you have a culture change. There’s growth pains, there’s more responsibility, and basically the knowledge you have isn’t sufficient to manage a growing number of employees. So, we pull upon outside

resources such as NEPIRC, where they may be able to train us in terms of process systems and quality systems. In fact, even the local industry through the consortium that NEPIRC has put together has provided several ideas, which we’ve used here, without having to do any of the research and development, to take advantage of what seem to be very clever ideas with low costs to implement but very profound differences to our operations.” Hayward said.