American manufacturer of medical diagnostic products
Puritan Medical Products is an American manufacturer of swab, diagnostic, and specimen collection products.[1][2] Puritan is North America's largest manufacturer of COVID-19 testing swabs.[3]
Based in Guilford, Maine, Puritan was a subsidiary of Hardwood Products Co., LP (its two subsidiaries being Hardwood Products Co., LLC and Puritan Medical Products Co., LLC), but has since split from Hardwood Products.[4][5][6] Guilford has been described as America's "swab capital," with Puritan's manufacturing reportedly ushering in the "golden age of the swab."[7][8]
Puritan operates three facilities in Maine (one in Guilford and two in Pittsfield), producing swabs and diagnostic testing supplies.[9][10] In June 2022, Puritan was named "Innovator of the Year" by the Maine International Trade Center.[11]
As of 2025, Puritan has about 500 employees.[12] It is a family-owned, “Maine-made” company. All of Puritan’s production is done domestically using U.S.-sourced materials.[13]
History
Established in 1919, Puritan began as a producer of mint-flavored toothpicks in Saginaw, Michigan.[14][15] The business moved to Maine in 1920, where white birch (needed for the toothpicks) was plentiful.[15] Puritan eventually pivoted into the medical field with the introduction of tongue depressors and aseptic wood applicators, and in the mid-1970s began to focus specifically on medical and healthcare products.[15]
Leadership
Puritan is a family-owned business.[16] The company is led by co-owner Timothy Templet, who serves as executive vice president of sales. Templet's grandfather, Lloyd Cartwright, founded Puritan in 1919 during the influenza pandemic.[17] His daughter, Virginia Templet, serves as Puritan’s marketing director.[18]
A business advocate, Templet urges American workers to join small companies and other private-sector employers as a way of combating labor shortages.[19] He also believes in proactively bracing for the next global health crisis, claiming the COVID-19 pandemic was a "wake-up call about stockpiles and being prepared."[20] Puritan urges people to practice vigilance in the face of new COVID spikes by continuing to test for emerging variants.[21]
Bob Shultz is the president and CFO at Puritan.[22] He is focused on recruiting workers from rural parts of Maine and Tennessee to join the company, among other initiatives.[23] Derek McKenney serves as Puritan's vice president of manufacturing operations.[24]
COVID-19 pandemic
In April 2020, Puritan received over $75 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to produce more "flock tip testing swabs," which are preferred for COVID-19 testing.[25][26][27] In June 2020, President Trump visited the company, highlighting its "noble tradition of American manufacturing excellence for more than 100 years."[28][29] In July 2020, Puritan received another $51 million from the Defense Department to "expand industrial production capacity of flock tip testing swabs."[30] To meet demand, the company partnered with Cianbro Corp. to open another swab production facility in Pittsfield, Maine.[31] Granted federal funding to churn out 40 million swabs per month, the new Pittsfield facility is hiring and training hundreds of workers to produce up to 100 million swabs a month.[32] In total, the federal government provided Puritan with more than $250 million in funding to accelerate COVID-19 testing swab production.[33]
In December 2020, Inc. named Puritan the magazine's "Company of the Year," describing it as "the most important manufacturer in the world."[35][36] Governor Janet Mills praised Puritan for "stepping up during tumultuous times to meet the needs of our state."[37] According to Bloomberg, Puritan offers full benefits and pays fully trained employees $15 an hour, higher than the $12.15 hourly minimum wage in Maine.[38]
In April 2021, Puritan announced plans to open a new manufacturing and distribution center in Orlinda, Tennessee, expanding the company’s national presence.[39] The Tennessee plant expected to create as many as 625 new jobs over the next five years.[40] In addition to accessing a larger workforce than in Maine, Puritan chose the Tennessee location for "the location, logistics, and incentives offered by Tennessee state and county development officials."[41][42] Puritan ceased operations at the plant in 2023, and sold the facility in 2025.[43]
In November 2025, Puritan announced the release of PurSafe Plus for the collection, inactivation, and preservation of human upper respiratory specimens suspected of containing SARS-CoV-2.[44]
Other work
Puritan produces sterile and non-sterile swabs, made from flocked fiber, rayon, cotton, polyester, and foam.[45] In addition to manufacturing COVID-19 testing swabs, Puritan is also active in the environmental, forensics, genetics, and microbiology media industries, among others.[46] This includes the production of environmental surface sampling kits.[47]
In September 2023, Puritan partnered with GenoTyping Center of America, a Maine-based genetic testing company, to produce specialty swabs that collect DNA from rodents without the need to use a surgical procedure or harvest a fresh tissue sample from each rodent.[48] Improving animal welfare, the new genotyping process is a DNA collection method that supports necessary biological research.[49] Heather Johnson, commissioner of the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, claims the partnership "illustrates the growth of Maine’s life sciences industry."[50]
In October 2024, Puritan announced a hiring spree, eyeing 50 employees to add to its roster of 450 workers.[51] The company cited orders being up 45 percent from pre-pandemic levels, including demand for U.S.-made testing products for the flu, RSV, strep, and COVID.[52]
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