Cleaning up one wipe at a time

WITTENBERG — At a time when many businesses are closed or operating with skeleton crews, Top Brass employs 80 people and is looking to hire more.

The company specializes in packaging single-use antibacterial wipes, medical device and surface sanitizer wipes, and wipes for pet, auto and personal care use. They need more workers to help on the assembly line production of these wipes.

President Mark Burgess noted that due to the COVID-19 virus, many of the production lines are booked through the rest of 2020 and into 2021. Because of the demand for anti-bacterial wipes and sanitizers, they’ve had to push some regular customers further out on the schedule.

“The biggest issue we currently face is the worldwide demand for raw materials, like alcohol, non-wovens and packaging materials,” he said. “Lead times in many instances are in months, not weeks.”

There are a lot of quality control issues to deal with when packaging the projects. Burgess acknowledged that since they produce FDA and EPA products, their quality department works very hard to make sure standard operating procedures are followed and quality documentation is compliant.

Several safety measures are practiced at the factory to keep employees healthy. Personal protective gear is utilized, such as gloves, hair nets, steel toe boots, safety glasses and ear protection, if needed. The whole plant goes through a sanitizing process. There is also year-round climate control with fresh air exchange and positive pressure in the production suites according to Burgess.

“As a small company, we all multi-task,” said Burgess. “I spend the majority of my time managing one of our largest customers. The rest of the time, I work with our plant and maintenance managers.”

Brad Mckay is vice president, heads up outside contract sales and works closely with the quality manager, and Liz Burgess handles monthly accounting, payables, receivables and department budgets.

“Most of the products we make are on contract and sold by our customers to many types of institutions and to large and small retailers throughout the country and the world,” said Mark Burgess.

Top Brass started in 1992 in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and moved operations to 1001 E. Mohawk St. in Wittenberg in 1994. They added a second building at that location in 1998.