October brings Manufacturing Month, an opportunity to recognize the companies, people, and products that make up manufacturing across Massachusetts.
Throughout the month, MassMEP is highlighting our members and the wide range of products they manufacture. In this five-part series, we’ll take a closer look at what they make across the state.
Many of these products are part of our everyday lives without us thinking about where they were made. Look around your kitchen, workplace, or even a restaurant. Massachusetts manufacturing may be closer than you think.
From Lynn to the Grocery Store
Food manufacturing has a long history in Massachusetts, and Demakes Brothers has been part of it for more than a century.
The Demakes family began producing food in Lynn in 1914, when Jean Demakes made Greek sausage in the back room of the family’s neighborhood store. More than 100 years later, the company continues to operate in Lynn under the leadership of the third and fourth generations of the Demakes family.
Today, Demakes Brothers produces a variety of protein products, including shaved meats, sausages, deli meats, hot dogs, ham, and corned beef. Its products include the Thin ‘n Trim line, which the company introduced in 1987.
The next time you walk through the refrigerated section of a grocery store, you may find a product made in Massachusetts.
More Than 200 Years of Cutlery Manufacturing
Dexter-Russell has been manufacturing cutlery for more than 200 years.
The company’s roots date to 1818, when Henry Harrington began producing cutlery in Massachusetts. Today, Dexter-Russell manufactures professional cutlery and tools at its facility in Southbridge.
Its products include chef’s and butcher knives, seafood tools, and industrial knives used in commercial kitchens, food processing, fishing, and other industrial applications.
Some of the tools used every day in restaurant kitchens and food processing facilities have their start in Southbridge.
Games Made in Western Massachusetts
You can also find Massachusetts-made products on the game table.
Cartamundi operates a card and board game manufacturing facility in East Longmeadow. The company acquired the facility from Hasbro in 2015 as part of its expansion in the United States.
Cartamundi produces playing cards and board games for customers around the world, with production covering everything from printing to assembly and packaging.
The next time you sit down for a card game or board game, take a closer look at where it was made.
Precision That Helps Things Move
Other products become components in much larger machines and systems.
Harmonic Drive, headquartered in Beverly, manufactures precision motion control products, including strain wave gearing, gear units, and rotary actuators.
Its products are used in applications across robotics, aerospace, defense, medical, semiconductor, energy, machine tools, and manufacturing, where precise movement and positioning are required.
While you may never see these products, they help make precise movement possible in the equipment where they are used.
Connecting Equipment and Information
Quabbin Wire & Cable manufactures cable products at its facility in Ware.
Its products include industrial Ethernet, commercial data, digital audio and video, control, and general-purpose cables used in a variety of applications.
Quabbin’s cables can be found in automation, electronics, lighting control, computer, security, and other industrial systems.
The cables may not be something you notice, but they help connect the equipment and systems used every day.
Manufacturing Is Closer Than You Think
These five manufacturers represent only a small sample of the products being made across Massachusetts.
Many of the products we use every day, along with the components that keep equipment and systems running, are made closer to home than we may realize.
Manufacturing Month gives us an opportunity to recognize the companies and people behind these products and take a closer look at what is being made around us.