The company's Washington location is the first for the Florham Park-based business to supply the sought-after disinfectant in the U.S., which it does not usually produce.

“This is the most important thing we have ever done or will ever do,” CEO Gairl Friedberg Rottenstrich told NJBIZ.

“A lot of these distributors and logistical operations who are receiving imported goods are obviously being hit hard,” Nick DePaolera of NAI James E. Hanson told NJBIZ. “Even if consumer demand is still there, getting these goods to the consumer is the issue.”

"When the opportunity arose we realized we were uniquely suited to make these because it combines the sweatband used in baseball caps with the clear vinyl we use in the binders and portfolios we manufacture so we had almost zero learning curve or tooling," Unionwear founder and President Mitch Cahn told NJBIZ.

The state’s manufacturers continued to work as the COVID-19 outbreak took hold.

Supply chain platform Suuchi Inc. and mattress maker Eclipse International are shifting some of their operations to manufacture masks and other equipment in short supply.

The CEO of the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program argues that the governor should resist calls to create a hierarchy of manufacturing firms, some of which would be forced to close.

"If we could 3-D-print a mask that you can replace the filters instead of having to replace the whole mask, then all you have to do is alcohol-swab it down once you put a new filter in it," Frank Cornachiulo, one of the nonprofit's co-founders and operators, told NJBIZ. "In other words, you do not have to throw away the masks."

New Jersey should learn from past mistakes and make investments that will prevent future crises, by NJMEP CEO John Kennedy.

Amid coronavirus, manufacturers safeguard supply chains.

The achievement marks a 64 percent increase since Gov. Phil Murphy took office in January 2018.

The deal furthers the Clark-based company's efforts to reach businesses in the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions.