'Significant consequences for the region': Merrow hopes to land defense contracts, would add hundreds of jobs

FALL RIVER – Charlie Merrow says all he’s ever expected from the federal government is a fair shake.

But he says it made a big mistake last month by not including his Fall River company as one of nine U.S. businesses to share in $335 million worth of Department of Defense contracts executed and awarded by the Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency.

Those nine contracts, according to the DOD, are intended to ensure delivery to the federal government of 73 million COVID-19-resistant isolation gowns by January 2021.

The Department of Defense also said the price tag of the contracts will likely exceed the initial value of $335 million.

“These contracts have a ceiling of $1.2 billion to manufacture up to 275 million gowns, if the Strategic National Stockpile requires additional gowns,” the DOD said in its release.

The department, in the same statement, said it had signed contracts four days earlier with five U.S. small businesses worth a maximum value of $136 million for 15 million COVID-19 reusable isolation gowns, which will also be used for the replenishment of the Strategic National Stockpile.

The goal, DOD said, is to “support the replenishment of the Health and Human Services-managed Strategic National Stockpile” so that “HHS is poised to meet the nation’s critical medical needs,” as well as “to reduce dependency on foreign sources for critical personal protective items.”

Merrow, 43, asserts that since the contracts were awarded in mid-September it’s become clear that more than one of those companies are inexperienced, unqualified and not up to the task.

“The DOD has been a good partner,” he said, alluding to the years that Merrow Manufacturing has been making and providing military grade, bullet-proof apparel.

“But in this case the feds were short-sighted,” Merrow said, adding that “I think there was some confusion in their first go in this market.”

He says since the coronavirus pandemic was designated last March as a national and state emergency, Merrow Manufacturing has become recognized as the largest producer of U.S.-sourced personal protective equipment — all of which, he stresses, satisfies all levels of required Food and Drug Administration inspectional guidelines.

But Merrow says a recent New York Times investigative piece has exposed what he already knew, which is that some of the companies selected for the isolation gown contracts were undeserving.

“More than 100 large and mid-size companies, many with track records of successfully completing federal procurement contracts, bid for the work,” the New York Times wrote.

“But the majority of the awards ultimately went to a handful of unexpected and inexperienced companies that now find themselves on the hook to produce hundreds of millions of gowns in a matter of months.”

The paper noted that one of the companies has been working with a retired National League Football player and another “with a former arms dealer who was barred from government contracting and was the inspiration for the film “War Dogs.”

“The DLA (Defense Logistics Agency) were supposed to pick the best price and value, but they didn’t vet anybody,” Merrow said.

“It’s illegal,” he said, referring to companies that allegedly misrepresent their qualifications and capability for the production of medical supplies to U.S. officials.

The same Oct. 7 New York Times story reported that during a Capitol Hill hearing held a week earlier “two senators expressed concerns that the contracts went to unqualified companies.”

Merrow, however, had reason to be more optimistic before the end of last week.

On Friday he said DLA representatives returned to tour the Merrow facility and conduct an audit.

“They were very impressed. It was a very good meeting,” which he said bodes well for the possibility of reconsideration for one of the DOD isolation gown contracts “if the other ones are thrown out.”

Merrow last May said that his company expected to produce four million medical gowns and coveralls “over the next several months” and create an estimated 900 jobs in four to five manufacturing plants with which it does business in the northeast region of the state.

He also at the time said that he and his brother Owen Merrow, the company’s president and chief operating officer, were investing as much as $5 million in capital improvements in the form of new, specialized equipment.

Merrow says landing one of the DOD isolation gown contracts would likely result in 200 new jobs at his 502 Bedford St. building and as many as 1,000 new jobs “from Lowell to Fall River.”

“It’s a long-term commitment that would have significant consequences for the region,” he said.

Merrow says he has a PPE client list that includes as many as 100 hospitals across the country.

The family-owned Merrow Manufacturing, which began in Connecticut in the late 1880s and moved to Fall River in 2006, also manufactures apparel ranging from lingerie and men’s dress slacks to women’s sports bras and cashmere and wool sweaters.

Companion company Merrow Sewing Machine Company, located in the same six-story former mill building, is known for its original line of production-grade, commercial sewing machines.

Merrow says he and his brother have come to recognize and appreciate the “multi-generational experience and depth of knowledge” as well the entrepreneurial spirit and receptiveness to new ideas on the part of many Fall Riverites.

“That’s the reason we came to Fall River,” he said.

The casually attired Merrow, who describes himself as “the least formal and most serious CEO in the world,” says he sometimes thinks of his Lithuanian immigrant great-grandmother when he’s at work.

The widowed Lena Himmelstein Bryant Malsin in 1904 opened a clothing store in 1904 in Upper Manhattan where she created and sold what would later be recognized as the first maternity dress.

The business eventually grew to become known as Lane Bryant Inc., a women’s retail clothing store specializing in plus-sized clothing.

“When I feel like I’m up against it on some days,” Merrow said, “I have to think of women like her who were successful and didn’t even have the right to vote.”