Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus business-closure order hobbles manufacturing supply chains in Pennsylvania

State officials were quick to issue Mark Wolfe a waiver to reopen his Berks County textile dyeing, bleaching, and finishing company after Gov. Tom Wolf’s March 19 decision to end on-site work at all “non-life-sustaining” Pennsylvania businesses.

But that doesn’t mean the fourth-generation owner of Wolfe Dye & Bleach Works Inc., which employs 60 people, is back to processing rolls of fabric for customers that supply the medical and defense industries.

“While we were excited to get the waiver,” Wolfe said Thursday, “our supply chain’s a little hobbled at this point, so I can’t formally reopen.” His business is in Shoemakersville, north of Reading.

The problem for Wolfe is that too many of the businesses on the next leg of the fabric’s journey — cut-and-sew facilities — are still closed, illustrating how Wolf’s order tripped up a wide range of industries that have intertwined supply chains.

Despite the trouble he’s having, Wolfe said he supports efforts to contain COVID-19 and will have safety measures in place when his facility reopens.

At the time of the governor’s shutdown, the National Federation of Independent Business described it as the strictest curtailment of commerce in the nation. New Jersey, for example, did not shut down manufacturing.

The state’s list of businesses that are allowed to operate on-site has been revised, and waivers were granted to 4,299 of the 25,162 businesses that applied for them as of Thursday. Officials denied 5,111 of them and determined that 3,917 could operate without a waiver.

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, which is handling the waiver requests, has rescinded at least one waiver, the one issued to Wolf Home Products, a kitchen cabinet manufacturer that the governor used to own but no longer does, Spotlight PA reported Friday.

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Spotlight PA also reported that a candy manufacturer owned by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) closed its doors after inquiries from the news organization. Candy makers are classified as food manufacturers and were allowed to stay open under the governor’s order.

One of Pennsylvania’s highest-profile companies, Hershey Co., is continuing to manufacture candy but has been pacing “operations with the demand from our consumers and customers to help maintain food security and supply,” according to its website.

Candy manufacturers employ more than 10,000 in the state, federal data show.

Wolfe shut down his plant immediately because it falls under “Textile and Fabric Finishing and Fabric Coating Mills,” which are not allowed to operate without a waiver.

He filed his waiver request on March 21, a Saturday, including supporting documentation from customers, and got the waiver two days later.

One of his customers for which he has treated fabric, AKAS Tex LLC, a Bensalem company that supplies fabrics to athletic apparel, automotive, furniture, health care, and other industries, has already bypassed Wolfe due to the temporary closure and sent its material to North Carolina for treatment, said Archana Sharma, AKAS’s chief executive.

“We have thousands of orders coming in,” Sharma said. AKAS has a material — designed for baby diapers — that is treated with an antimicrobial agent and has become wildly popular for surgical masks, said Sharma, who in January received her first inquiries about fabric for masks from overseas.

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Sharma is also getting bad news from the other end of her supply chain. On Friday, she learned that one of her yarn suppliers is closing a plant because of COVID-19.

Back in Shoemakersville, Wolfe said he expects to reopen with maybe 70% of the workforce. That’s both because he’s limiting his production to the products that are considered “life-sustaining” by the Wolf administration and because some of his employees are nervous about being out in the world and potentially exposing themselves to the virus.

Still, he really thinks it is important to reopen soon. “There are situations where we are the sole critical supplier of a medical device item here in Pennsylvania,” he said.