Press Release
Powell, TN November 16, 2020 – DeRoyal Industries, Inc., a global manufacturer and supplier of medical products, has partnered with Premier Inc., a leading healthcare improvement company, and 34 of Premier’s member health systems to create a new joint venture dedicated to the domestic production of isolation gowns.
Access to personal protective equipment, including isolation gowns, is critical to the daily operations of health systems and is also personally significant to individual caregivers, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Historically, raw materials are sourced outside of the United States with approximately 80 percent of these materials coming from Southeast Asia. Reliance on non-domestic sources poses a great risk in access to supplies and creates long lead times, which was demonstrated in April 2020 when 74 percent of hospitals reported inability to source adequate quantities of isolation gowns. This new joint venture is formed to combat these supply shortages by creating a resilient and robust supply chain of isolation gowns that keeps front line workers safe and protected.
Production of isolation gowns will occur in an existing facility in Powell, TN. Raw materials will primarily be sourced from U.S.- based manufacturers with backup capacity from Mexico and South America. These isolation gowns have been designed with the end user in mind under the guidance of key Premier Inc. stakeholders alongside automation experts ensuring cost and quality targets are achieved.
“Domestic manufacturers face tremendous handicaps against foreign competitors, many of whom draw from among the cheapest labor and supply markets on the planet,”
- Brian DeBusk, DeRoyal CEO.
Brian DeBusk went on to mention “One way we can restore diverse, on-shore and near-shore manufacturing is by investing in automation combined with assurances of long-term purchasing volume at fair prices. With this added certainty, we are now able to move into an entirely new product category, create new American jobs, and offer a domestic option for providers where one didn’t exist previously. Our intent is to leverage automation to remain price competitive for the long term."
About Premier Inc.
Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 4,100 U.S. hospitals and health systems and approximately 200,000 other providers and organizations to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and consulting and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com: as well as Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, YouTube, Instragram and Premier’s blog for more information about the company.