Brush with Success

Andreas Gottzmann says the Schiffer family first began making various types of brushes in Germany in 1887. It put all of its energies into toothbrush production just after World War II, because the Allies asked the company to focus on that much-needed product.

Company president Carl Schiffer

Along the way, his company, Schiffer Dental Care Products, has become one of the largest toothbrush manufacturers in the world and the clear leader in the use of advanced technology and materials for newproduct development.

Today, the company produces some 320 million toothbrushes a year at plants in Agawam, Germany, and India. The local facility produces more than 37 million units annually, a number that will more than double when the company completes a 40,000-square-foot addition to the Bowles Road plant, a project set to commence next spring.

While the numbers are impressive, says Edward Peloquin, business development manager at the Agawam plant, it is a focus on quality, not quantity, that has put the company where it is.

Schiffer has historically invested heavily in research and development, he said, a strategy that has put it on the cutting edge of technology and made it the manufacturing of choice for high-end toothbrushes bearing such names as Crest, Reach, Aquafresh, Mentadent, and many others.

Schiffer's sales have risen more than 20% for each of the past several years, said Peloquin, and the company, which now employs 105 people to run three shifts 24/7, has a long waiting list for positions on the factory floor.

Only, Peloquin prefers not to call it a factory.

"It certainly doesn't look like one," he said. "It's an FDA-compliant facility - a toothbrush is considered a medical device - it's a pretty incredible environment in which to work."

Reason to Smile

Gottzmann told BusinessWest that the toothbrush manufacturing market is dominated by a handful of companies, perhaps five in Europe, four in the United States, and a few in the Far East.

Schiffer has positioned itself as the dominant name in the high-end market, he said, due to its use of the latest technology, which enables it to help customers bring new products to the market more quickly and inexpensively than other makers.

The toothbrushes of today are becoming increasingly sophisticated products, said Peloquin, from the new polymers being used in the handles to the various shapes and designs of the heads. Long gone are the days when brushes were made of uniformly shaped hard plastic with rows of hard, straight bristles.

In this environment, R&D is critical, said Peloquin, and therein lies the ultimate key to the company's strong growth pattern.

"We put 100% of the bottom line back into technology," he explained. "Everything gets reinvested in technology, and that allows us to be aggressive with pricing."

The company's state-of-the-art technology - most of it from Europe, where labor is scarce and automation is therefore critical - allows Schiffer to produce more types of brushes, especially the high-end models that feature custom bristle patterns.

Schiffer features a unique computer-supported "In Mould" production process that allows for the inserting of brush filaments into the head during the initial molding process, which has led to wide-ranging improvements in toothbrush design and function.

"We can do a lot of things that other manufacturers can't," said Gottzmann. "If you have standard equipment, you can do a certain type of brush; if you want to go beyond that, you have to have resources, R&D, and equipment, and that's our strength."

And that capability allows Schiffer to help customers bring new products to the market more quickly, and this is critical at a time when the industry is becoming increasingly competitive. The company's Proprietary Technology Centre in Germany, where new product concepts and process enhancements are researched and developed, uses rapid prototyping that reduces development time frames.

In simple terms, said Peloquin, Schiffer has become a solution-maker for major health care product makers like Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and others, and in many ways is the ideal partner in newproduct development

The company's many process and design engineers have helped clients introduce; not only new and different concepts for brush handles and heads, but also packaging and display, he explained.

But with success comes challenges, and at present Schiffer is being pressed to keep up with mounting demand. The plant's expansion is moving through the design and permitting stage as quickly as possible, but the additional manufacturing capacity was needed "yesterday," said Peloquin.

The company arrived in New England in the mid-'90s, when Carl Schiffer started looking for joint ventures in the Northeast. He didn't find any, but, after falling in love with New England, he established a distribution facility in West Springfield.

That operation gradually shifted toward production, said Gottzmann, adding that the West Springfield site lacked the square footage and high ceilings for molding and production. When the company went searching for a larger facility, it settled on its present location in the Agawam Industrial Park.

The site offers the company an attractive, functional space with the needed capacity to grow, said Peloquin. It also offers the desired climate - cool, dry air is preferable for molding operations, he said, adding that while plants can be air conditioned, that adds to the cost of doing business.

The planned expansion of the Schiffer facility is one of many additions that have taken place in the industrial park over the past few years. The 40,000-square-foot addition will mean dozens of new jobs at the plant which the company has succeeded in making an attractive place to work.

Indeed, one key to the company's success is its competitive wage and benefits packages, which enable it to attract and retain qualified workers.

The company pays more than most manufacturers in the area, said Peloquin, and it offers generous incentives and bonuses - typical in Germany - which not only help retain employees, but make them feel they are sharing in the company's success. "We have a long waiting list for jobs here," he said. "People who work here are trying to get their relatives in."

Labor in this country is much more expensive than in the Far East, Peloquin said, but the automated, highly efficient technology being used in Agawam more than makes up for those higher labor costs.

Bright Future

Carl Schiffer is still making toothbrushes, as Gottzmann said, because no one told him to stop. The niche product that the company was asked to specialize in has grown into a multi-billion-dollar market worldwide.

And thanks to continuous investment in new technology, the company is gaining an ever-larger share of that pie. "If we target a market, we know we're going to get it," said Peloquin.

That kind of confidence has helped the company experience a few brushes with success.