Brooms and Brushes

The industry is almost evenly divided into three main categories: brooms, mops, and dusters; paint and varnish brushes, and paint holders, pads, roller frames, and rollers including replacement rollers; and other brushes, including toothbrushes, hairbrushes, shaving brushes, industrial brushes, and artists' brushes, among others. The majority of the 230 companies in the late 2000s were small and privately owned; only about 23 percent employed more than 100 workers in 2007. Industry-wide employment totaled approximately 11,172 workers receiving a payroll of nearly $394 million. The industry is most heavily concentrated in the Midwest.

Manufacturers range from small, family-owned businesses to large corporations for whom broom or brush manufacture is one of many interests. The 1980s and early 1990s were characterized by a series of acquisitions of smaller firms by larger corporations. Empire Brush Co. of Greenville, North Carolina, acquired six companies in that period and reported a 100 percent increase in sales. Two of the largest makers of "stick goods," O-Cedar and Vining Industries, merged in 1993. This proved to be a profitable merger as the Ohio-based company boosted its home state as the leading brush and broom producer in the United States by 1997.

Until the mid-twentieth century, brushes were made of natural materials such as hog bristles, horsehairs, and Tampico fibers. Brooms were made of birch and willow twigs until the early 1800s, when they were replaced by broomcorn straw (actually a type of sorghum). In 1906, the entire brush industry generated $19 million in sales. The innovative sales techniques of the Fuller Brush Co. helped to revitalize the industry, so when founder Alfred Fuller turned operations over to his son Howard in 1946, Fuller Brush alone earned $41 million. Fuller Brush, a division of Sara Lee Corp., saw its importance as an industry leader diminish in the 1970s and 1980s.

The replacement of original materials with longer-lasting synthetic fibers and metal alloys caused a major change in the industry. This, combined with advances in mass production techniques following World War II, decreased production costs and allowed for greater profit margins. Broom making also was affected by mass production. Plastic brooms became more common, although the majority of all brooms are still made of broomcorn.

Industry growth in the 1980s continued slightly but steadily. Profit margins in the early 1990s were above average compared to other manufacturing industries, largely due to increased sales caused by new designs. In the 2000s, the American Brush Manufacturers Association (ABMA) was involved in creating labeling standards so consumers could better compare product quality. In 2006, ABMA produced brochures for member companies to use in detailing these guidelines.

Broom manufacturers in particular became concerned with the potential threat caused by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Before NAFTA, the American industry was protected by a 32 percent tariff on imports, due to phase out over an 11-year period. Mexico, already the largest supplier of brooms, was expected to benefit from the elimination of tariffs. The fears were unrealized, however, as the U.S. brush and broom industry saw a 65 percent increase in sales between 1995 and 1997. Shipment values were relatively stable through the late 1990s and into the 2000s as demonstrated by 1997 totals of $2.1 billion, followed by $2.2 billion in 2001 and $2.4 billion in 2008. Employment totals, however, have fallen through those same years. From a total of 17,280 workers in 1997, employment fell to 15,250 workers in 2001 and to 11,172 in 2007.

The industry leaders in the mid-2000s were Gillette Co. of Boston, Massachusetts; Orange Glo International Inc. of Denver, Colorado; and Wilen Companies Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia.

Leading industry publications included Brushware, published by 12Twelve Media; Brossa Press, a trade publication and database of related addresses; Brush Expert, an online magazine; and Broom, Brush & Mop, published by Rankin Publishing. The ABMA, based out of Aurora, Illinois, is a membership trade organization representing broom, brush, and mop manufacturers. According to ABMA, most industry statistics, including the data collected by the association, are closely guarded.