Medical glove facility breaks ground in Wythe County

WYTHE COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) - Governor Ralph Northam helped kick off a major PPE infrastructure project in Wythe County Monday.

Blue Star NBR and American Glove Innovations (AGI) are leading the multi-million investment to build a medical glove manufacturing facility in Wythe County. Gov. Ralph Northam, local and Blue Star leaders were joined by the community at a groundbreaking ceremony at the facility’s new home.

“It’s something that you know, so many people have been working on for a number of years, right here in Progress Park. It’s one of those examples of if you build it, they will come,” said Gov. Ralph Northam. “Here at the end of my term, this is really exciting to be here today to help break ground and get the structure put in place to be able to manufacture the nitrile gloves right here.”

Blue Star first made the announcement in October 2021. They say this is an investment in which they plan to hire about 2,500 people.

“It’s always been my dream to produce products in this wonderful country and I never could quite understand why we can’t do this. We have the talent. We have the skill. We have the desire. And, you know, to stand here today is really a dream come true,” said Blue Star-AGI Co-Chief Executive Officer Marc Jason.

Leaders believe this effort could return the manufacturing of key PPE products on-shore to the United States from Asia after global supply chains were disrupted early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“But to have a lot of help from everyone in this community to build this company up to be the world-class manufacturing facility. That’s going to be and we’re very much looking forward to working with everyone in this area to make that happen,” Blue Star-AGI Co-Chief Executive Officer Scott Maier.

County leaders believe this is the largest job creation in Southwest Virginia in a generation-- creating a range of positions in engineering, productions, and more. They hope once the facility is complete, they’ll be able to produce more than 60 billion gloves per year.

Keep a lookout for jobs at Blue Star here.

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