SafeSource Direct, the Broussard-based personal protective equipment manufacturer, has suspended operations in a move that will put 541 out of work.
Company officials made the announcement late Friday that it was suspending activity immediately at its nitrile glove and man-made fiber PPE plants because of poor market conditions after it first began operations just over three years ago with aspirations of employing well over 1,000.
In its announcement, officials indicated the board of directors exhausted all options to avoid the situation but the company was “not immune from the ongoing challenges” facing the domestic PPE manufacturing industry.
Company officials would not identify how many employees will remain. It employed over 800 at one point.
In a letter to employees, company leaders indicated they are working toward a solution in the next 60 days. During that time SafeSource will secure all systems and facilities while decommissioning and preserving its equipment.
Impacted employees received a 60-day notice of termination and will be paid and receive benefits during that time. The company will also provide outplacement support and assistance with the Louisiana Department of Labor and local public and private resources to help impacted workers.
“We are proud of what our team accomplished as they boldly responded to the nation’s call to protect frontline workers and help strengthen America’s PPE supply chain in an unprecedented time," SafeSource President Justin Hollingsworth said.
"We successfully established a manufacturing base capable of supplying the nation with a reliable source of PPE, and it is extremely unfortunate that market conditions, which have been unsupportive for several years, do not permit sustained domestic production.”
Troy Wayman, president and CEO of One Acadiana, said he’s saddened to see SafeSource Direct suspend operations since it had been a valued part of the business community.
“Global competition within the PPE market is increasingly strong, and we recognize how difficult a decision this was for them to make,” he said. “We stand ready to connect their workforce with resources and opportunities during this transition. This closure does not diminish the strength of Acadiana’s economy.”
The company was created out of a partnership between Ochsner Health and Alabama-based Trax Development nearly five years ago. It manufactured, warehoused and directly distributed PPE for health care and other industries.
The company was born during the pandemic as a way to offer domestic production of PPE items. Then-Gov. John Bel Edwards spoke during the announcement that day in May 2021 and remarked how the operation would allow companies to stop relying on products made in China.
Officials that day touted a goal of employing 1,221, and the first nitrile glove rolled off the assembly line in January 2022.
SafeSource occupied two buildings in Broussard — a 400,000-square-foot facility in the Spanish Trail industrial park in St. Martin Parish and it was retrofitting the 80,000-square-foot former Weatherford International facility.
The Broussard facility was set to house 245 jobs and manufacture surgical tie masks, bouffant hair covers, shoe covers, isolation gowns, procedure masks and N95 masks. The St. Martin Parish location was to house 976 jobs and include multiple production lines of PPE manufacturing with nitrile rubber gloves as the main product.
In June SafeSource filed an expansion request with the office of Louisiana Economic Development that it would build an industrial base expansion plant that would produce 90,000 tons of acrylonitrile butadiene rubber to make nitrile gloves.
The company is still pursuing the request, a company spokesman said. SafeSource has a contract with the government for the construction of an NBR plant, which remains active.
Once built, it could be the first of its kind in the U.S. and addressed supply chain issues as well as add 110 jobs, according to its application.
Last October ecomomist Loren Scott predicted SafeSource Direct's employee count would reach 1,560 by 2026.