Most team members have received a COVID-19 vaccine. A small percentage have not for various reasons including medical conditions. The company has not mandated the vaccine, as other organizations have, but has instituted procedures to be followed by unvaccinated team members.

The policy is in effect for the foreseeable future. With the prevalence of the Delta variant and other potential virus mutations, NewAge believes this is the right course to take in order to protect the health of all team members and continue our ability to manufacture the critical products needed for COVID-19 and seasonal flu vaccine production and their treatments.

We’re working diligently to increase our ability to produce more tubing. A clean room expansion at our Southampton headquarters was recently completed, and renovations continue at our Warrington operations. See our Expansion update here.

The majority of NewAge-AdvantaPure team members have been vaccinated against COVID-19, so a group recently got together for a friendly but competitive game of softball after work. It was fun to be around friends and coworkers again in a relaxed, social atmosphere.

Other activities – more sporting events, a barbeque – are in the works as we return to normalcy. The company has hired dozens of people over the past fifteen months, with most new employees working in Manufacturing to produce silicone and TPE tubing and Single-Use assemblies for the biopharm industries.

Check out the details on how we’ll be making even more tubing and assemblies at our Expansion update here.

Several of our teams – Manufacturing, Quality, Warehouse, Human Resources, IT – and many other individual team members have worked at our southeastern Pennsylvania headquarters straight through the COVID-19 pandemic. But others whose job responsibilities did not require their physical presence in the building had been working from home.

With a relatively high percentage of people who live in Pennsylvania and New Jersey being vaccinated against the disease, NewAge Industries felt secure in inviting all remote team members to return to working in the office beginning June 1. The entire team is once again able to interact and meet in person, although we’re still taking precautions such as daily temperature checks, frequent handwashing, using sanitizer, and social distancing to remain healthy and safe.

Renovations and clean room construction at our headquarters and our Warrington facility are moving forward. When completed, we’ll have increased capacity for producing more silicone and TPE tubing and more molded assemblies. For details on these projects, click here.

More than half of the company’s employee-owners took advantage of the opportunity to get vaccinated while at work. Most other team members received shots on their own through vaccination programs at county-run sites, pharmacies, or other healthcare organizations.

Workers who are busy renovating our expansion facility had also been waiting for their turns at getting shots. NewAge made arrangements with Horsham Square Pharmacy, the same pharmacy that vaccinated team members at our Southampton headquarters, to visit our additional building and offer the COVID-19 vaccine to the folks there. These people are working hard to get the facility up and running as quickly as possible, which will allow us to manufacture more silicone and TPE tubing.

Being vaccinated helps ensure that we can continue to make the vital tubing that’s being used to make more doses available.

NewAge’s role in the battle against this relentless virus has necessitated adjustments regarding how we conduct business. Many team members not involved with manufacturing, packaging, inspecting, and shipping our silicone, TPE, and plastic tubing products are working remotely. Those who are here are, of course, wearing masks, social distancing, embracing extra cleaning procedures, and keeping sanitary conditions top of mind. All team members are periodically tested for the virus, and many are now on waiting lists for vaccination appointments.

We are fully committed to increasing our manufacturing capacities and improving lead times. Plans have been underway since last year and include:

• Expanding the number of manufacturing clean rooms at our headquarters in Southampton, PA, by renovating warehouse and office space; we’re working with AES Clean Technology, a leader in clean room design and construction and the company that managed our 2018 clean room expansion project
• Continuing to speed renovations at our additional facility in nearby Warrington, PA, purchased in May 2020; Genesis AEC is administering this large undertaking
• Ordering manufacturing equipment such as injection molding presses, mills, and extruders well ahead of their anticipated need so that we can move forward with installations and validations as soon as building renovations are completed
• Hiring additional team members; NewAge has increased its staff by 20% over the past ten months with most new positions in Manufacturing and Assembly, roles dedicated to increasing our product output

NewAge is investing $20 million into the two renovation projects and continuing to onboard more employees to fill the new jobs being created.

We are continuing our participation in Operation Warp Speed (OWS), a government mandated program initiated to accelerate the development, manufacture, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

If you have questions about how our plans or OWS may affect your orders, our staff is available and ready to help. Call us at 215-526-2151 or contact us by e-mail at info@advantapure.com.