Goya sales surged this year amid the pandemic as people traded taco Tuesday at their local bar for a similar festivity in isolation. In March alone, sales for Goya products quadrupled, and Goya distributed over 23 million cans of beans to retailers. The company was in the news time and time again for donating products and cash, including 18,000 meals in March, 20,000 masks in April, 180,000 pounds of food to Venezuela in September, and 300,000 pounds of food to Guatemala in October. Now, Goya is offering $80,000 in culinary arts and food science scholarships nationwide.

Hart worked with the state’s biotechnology industry leaders to establish BioNJ in 1994 and has been dedicated to building the state’s life sciences ecosystem ever since. Those efforts have been even more critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, with New Jersey situated squarely in the middle of both the outbreak and the fight to end it.

Along with BioNJ, the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey is an important voice on behalf of the state pharmaceutical industry. And both voices will be sought even more as the effort to eradicate COVID-19 heads into the final, most critical phase. Paranicas oversees HINJ, which represents research-based biopharmaceutical and medical technology industry. That membership includes many of the world’s largest as well as smaller, growing companies.

Manufacturing still happens in Newark and a lot of it goes on at Unionwear, a 170-employee company run by Cahn. Unionwear makes uniforms, hats and other promotional clothing. And during the pandemic, the company was one of many that pivoted to providing personal protective equipment when its regular suppliers and customers were disrupted. Cahn described the process during a Manufacturing Day program held virtually by the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program and in general has advocated strengthening domestic supply chains.

The list that unfolds over the following pages is the last such feature we’ll publish this year. Like the others – and like most of business and life in New Jersey – the Manufacturing Power 50 is shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The top ten individuals are drawn mostly from the pharmaceutical industry, which will provide the treatments and tools that will eventually end the outbreak. No surprise there.

When shortages of personal protective equipment were plaguing the state in March, the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program mobilized to create a Critical Supply Chain List, a database of manufacturers who pivoted to making such items. Hundreds of companies signed themselves up on the list.

This is the Jersey City-based distributor's 29th acquisition under CEO Robert Tillis and President Jason Tillis.

Proposed Senate Bill 3015 would set up a tax credit program, capped at $10 million a year, for businesses to offset the costs of manufacturing gloves, face shields, masks and gowns.

New Jersey legislators are hoping to set aside $1.5 million a year for the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program, a not-for-profit that trains and connects the workforce within the state’s manufacturing sector.

The 31,500-square-foot facility will offer education and training in a number of degree and certificate programs at the County College of Morris, and provide the industry with opportunities to update the skills of current employees.