A Winooski soap company is expanding its manufactring into a second plant in Essex. When Twincraft Skincare opened its doors in 1978 the company formulated and manufactured bar soap. Now widely recognized as one of the most innovative and progressive contract manufacturers of prestige and specialty bar soap for the past 40 years, Twincraft continues to manufacture over 37 million bars of soap annually in the Winooski facility. In 2014, with support and encouragement from customers, Twincraft Soap became Twincraft Skincare and began presenting customers with a huge array of product options including an extensive variety of rinse-off cleansing and leave-on skincare products.
“This is a truly exciting time for Twincraft,” said Owner and CEO Peter Asch during a recent tour of the Essex plant. “The expansion into new product categories allows us to increase our presence in the industry and ensure long-lived, high quality, employment opportunities in Vermont.”
With the addition of 20,000 square feet of manufacturing space in Essex, Vermont, that promise became a reality this month. The facility, which Twincraft used for warehousing since 2003, has been fitted up to manufacture liquid products with natural, sustainable and organic ingredients: liquid and foaming soaps, bath and shower gels, lotions, creams, body butters, oils, etc. Formulations, created in the Winooski lab, can now be mixed in one of the tanks in the Essex Batch Room and then bottled in one of the filling lines. Current capabilities include filling bottles and jars, and a tube filler for both plastic and metal tubes is being added in June.
The new facility is designed with three fundamental principles: cleanliness to assure product quality, flexibility to address emerging customer needs, and scalability to provide for growth in capacity as needed. Twincraft Skincare believes that the liquid products offer untapped opportunity for the company, and anticipates sales volumes rivaling those of bar soap within five years, effectively doubling the size of the business. According to President Jim Howard, “The exponential growth we’re anticipating is rare, especially in well-established industries like ours. Our aggressive growth plan is based on doing what we do better than anyone else. The state-of-the-art manufacturing in Essex will help Twincraft realize these goals, which include hiring new employees in Vermont over the next five years.”
“We’re hiring right now,” added Human Resources Manager Elizabeth LeClair. “We’re looking for motivated people to join our production and maintenance teams on first and second shifts. No experience is necessary; we’ll train the right people. Find out more at www.Twincraft.com or stop by our Winooski headquarters to fill out an application.”
Source: Twincraft 1.28.2015