PURITAN: 100+ Years of Excellence... and Counting!
No, we didn’t cross the North Atlantic aboard the Mayflower in 1620 with the Puritan pilgrims.
But since 1919, we have reflected and embodied the dedication, honor, and determination of the Puritans. You’ll find these attributes alive and well today in our corner of New England, particularly in the people who make Puritan Medical Products all that we have become over the past 100+ years.
A centennial celebration is hard to come by. If you’re fortunate enough to enjoy one, you have an obligation to share your story. And to lay down a marker as you set out on your next 100-year journey!
Lloyd Cartwright, Founder of the Minto
Toothpick & Specialty Company
Toothpick & Specialty Company
Our Mission
To manufacture innovative products for the world, using local ingenuity and resources since 1919.
New Englanders that we are, we believe it’s best to let our work speak for itself. If pressed, we’re bound to tell you we strive to manufacture high quality products, sell them at a fair price, and deliver them with customer service that just can’t be beat.
That’s what we’ll tell you. And every word of it’s true. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find there’s more to our mission. A lot more. Truth is, Puritan aims to make a difference. In the lives of customers who use our products to make a diagnosis. To detect a deadly pathogen. To help solve a crime. And to be part of a genetic discovery.
Equally important, we aim to help our people enjoy work and life in the place they love.
Just don’t ask us to talk about all that. Better to let the work speak for itself. Ours just happens to speak volumes.
Our Story
It all started over 100 years ago with a toothpick and a simple goal: Produce a quality product that people needed, and deliver it with customer service that can’t be beat. It’s what led that first batch of mint-flavored toothpicks. And it was behind the products that shipped this morning.
Today, Puritan’s catalog offers more than 1,200 distinct single-use items, including 65 types of swabs. We produce 12 million swabs per day and more than 5 billion per year.
We’re family owned and operated and we’re proud of the families and the rural, small-town work ethic that makes us what we are today: A world-class manufacturer with customers on 7 continents.
Puritan Medical Products. Made in the USA. Trusted worldwide.
Changes over Time
Our evolution from creators of woodenware and tongue depressors didn’t happen overnight. But in 1978, our move into the tipped applicator market opened doors to whole new worlds – those of the controlled environment, diagnostics & specimen collection, forensics & genetics, food safety, and medical industries.
Since then, we’ve registered trademarks and achieved FDA accreditation as a medical device manufacturer. We’ve earned ISO and CE certification. Patents for proprietary products like the Popule and the DM stick followed, as did patents for innovative processes that create the PurFlock Ultra® and HydraFlock® flocked swab lines.
And our customization capabilities are second to none. You can be sure that we’ll give your concept the attention it deserves, from face-to-face consultations with our engineers, to the purchasing of the finest materials, to building a prototype that can be commercially produced.
The story’s far from over. As you read this, our team is working hard on new technology that tackles the problems of today, with an eye on those of tomorrow.
Aha Moments
Who would have known that a small-town, family-owned and operated manufacturer in rural Maine would grow into a world class manufacturer of medical devices? Anyone who knew the New England Yankee work ethic would. That’s for sure.
Key moments can pile up over the course of a century in business. Here are three of the more memorable ones.
- Making the old new again. Puritan refined and reimagined the flock swab as the PurFlock Ultra® and HydraFlock®. When it comes to specimen collection, flock swabs have the highest collection and elution properties.
- Prioritizing food safety. Producers, processors, and regulators all need tools to ensure our food is free of pathogens and other contaminants. Enter Puritan environmental sampling products.
- Solving crime-scene science. Rapid advances in technology posit DNA evidence collection at the center of police forensics, and Puritan specimen collection devices raise the bar for accuracy in evidence collection and analysis.
Who We Serve
We are committed to two distinct and equally important audiences.
Our partner distributors, who ensure their customers have access to the products they need most. They help promote our products and tell our story.
Our end-users. Think professionals who crack open Puritan products knowing they have in their hands reliable, quality single-use tools that will help them do their important work. This includes health professionals, scientists, regulatory and law enforcement agents, research scientists, and technology developers, to name just a few.
What’s in Store
There’s no telling what technology and innovation will bring to the specimen collection device industry. All you can expect of Puritan is what you’ve always known: That Puritan provides the highest quality products at a fair price and with customer service that can’t be beat.
We can’t tell you precisely what form Puritan products will take or how they’ll make life better for the people who use them 50 years or even 100 years from now. (Collecting samples on Mars? Developing cures for cancers? Cleaning the motherboard in your pet robot?)
Regardless, you can bet people will still be turning to Puritan for quality products, fair prices, and the unmatched customer service.
