SIC 3991 Brooms and Brushes

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 3991

This category covers establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing household, industrial, and street sweeping brooms; and brushes, such as paintbrushes, toothbrushes, toilet brushes, and household and industrial brushes.

NAICS CODE(S)

339994

Broom, Brush and Mop Manufacturing

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 269 establishments operated in this category for part or all of 2004. Industry-wide employment totaled approximately 12,767 workers receiving a payroll of nearly $439 million. Companies in this industry tended to be smaller in size with about 77 percent employing less than 100 workers. The Annual Survey of Manufactures reported that overall shipments for the industry were valued at more than $2 billion in 2005. Additionally, for the industry a total of 7,523 employees worked in production in 2004, putting in nearly 16 million hours to earn wages of more than $227 million.

The industry leader in 2005 was Gillette Co. of Boston, Massachusetts, with 2004 sales of more than $10.5 billion and nearly 29,000 employees (company products include electric toothbrushes). A distant second was Denver, Colorado-based Orange Glo International Inc. with $515 million in 2005 sales. Rounding out the top three was Atlanta, Georgia-based Wilen Companies Inc. with $80 million in 2005 sales and 400 employees.

Manufacturers range from small, family-owned businesses to large corporations for whom broom or brush manufacture is one of many interests. The 1980s and early 1990s were characterized by a series of acquisitions of smaller firms by larger corporations. Empire Brush Co. of Greenville, North Carolina, acquired six companies in that period and reported a 100 percent increase in sales. Two of the largest makers of "stick goods," O-Cedar and Vining Industries, merged in 1993. This proved to be a profitable merger as the Ohio-based company boosted its home state as the leading brush and broom producer in the United States by 1997.

The industry is divided into three main categories: brooms, mops, and dusters; paint and varnish brushes, and paint holders, pads, roller frames, and rollers including replacement rollers; and other brushes. The segment of other brushes led with about 36 percent of the 2002 market and included toothbrushes, hairbrushes, shaving brushes, industrial brushes, and artists' brushes, among others. Brooms, mops, and dusters make up about 30 percent of shipment values, while paint...