Glen Allen, VA
www.owens-minor.com
www.halyardhealth.com
2024 Nonwovens Sales: $150 million

Key Personnel
Greg Hylton—VP & general manager, procedural & surgical solutions; Jim Borland—Lexington plant manager; Brett Schoenberg—senior business development manager, nonwovens; JD Hurdle—VP, research & development Production Sites
Lexington, NC

Processes
Spunlaid (Spunbond, SMS, Meltblown, Lamination)

Major Markets
Medical, Hygiene, Wipes, Industrial and Filtration

Owens & Minor, Inc. is a Fortune 500 global healthcare solutions company providing essential products and services that support care from the hospital to the home. Its affiliated brands include Apria, Byram and Halyard*.

Through its Products & Healthcare Services (P&HS) segment, Owens & Minor is a global manufacturer of Halyard brand products, including personal protective equipment (PPE) products that are primarily produced in its Americas-based facilities using its own nonwoven fabrics produced in Lexington, NC, including spunbond, meltblown, SMS and customized laminate composites. These nonwovens are consumed internally and sold externally to customers for a variety of end-use markets including medical applications.

The Halyard* brand entered the roll goods nonwovens market in 2023 amidst challenging post-Covid pandemic industry conditions, achieving measured success as a new entrant in an over-supplied market with a lengthy sales cycle. Since then, a fresh customer outreach and go-to-market strategy, combined with a shift in the business environment, have paved the way for nonwovens expansion, including a range of new product lines for hygiene, wipes, filtration and various nonwoven industrial applications, according to executives.

Today, Owens & Minor’s P&HS segment is seeing steady increases in medical nonwoven demand in part due to its end-to-end oversight over the production and manufacturing process, a key factor that differentiates its approach from companies that only produce fabrics. Much of this growth can be attributed to Surgical & Infection Prevention (S&IP) finished products, ISO 13485 medical device certification, and the company’s vertical integration. Additionally, Americas-based production at the Lexington, NC facility helps to minimize recent changes in U.S. tariff policy to provide for greater diversification options and flexibility. B2B nonwovens sales are also surging domestically due to IIJA/Berry-compliant government PPE procurement.

Outside of medical nonwovens, the P&HS segment is leveraging its expertise in meltblown with several new wiper grades, as well as rolling out hydrocharged meltblown for filtration applications requiring higher levels of filtration efficiency that do not degrade over time.  To better serve hygiene markets and demonstrate its commitment to quality, the company also received its hygiene certification from EDANA and is excited to offer SMS and film laminates for diaper and adult care applications.
Moving forward, the P&HS segment is focused on continuing to grow its Halyard nonwovens business, with a more diversified product mix and broader market exposure.

Plants: Lexington, NC
Processes: Spunlaid (Spunbond, SMS, Meltblown, Lamination)
Major Markets: Medical, hygiene, wipes, industrial and filtration

Owens & Minor, Inc. is a Fortune 500 global healthcare solutions company providing essential products and services that support care from the hospital to the home.

For over 100 years, Owens & Minor and its affiliated brands, Apria, Byram and HALYARD*, have helped to make each day better for the patients, providers and communities it serves.

Powered by more than 20,000 teammates worldwide, Owens & Minor delivers comfort and confidence behind the scenes so healthcare stays at the forefront. Owens & Minor exists because every day, everywhere, Life Takes Care.

Through its Products & Healthcare Services (P&HS) segment, Owens & Minor is a global manufacturer of Halyard brand products, including personal protective equipment (PPE) products that are primarily produced in its Americas-based facilities using its own nonwoven fabrics produced in Lexington, NC, including spunbond, meltblown, SMS and customized laminate composites. These nonwovens are consumed internally and sold externally to customers in the medical space.

Recently, the Halyard portfolio expanded with the introduction of two Halyard brand AAMI Level 2 isolation gowns and a new version of its flagship AERO CHROME AAMI Level 4 gown as part of its growing gown portfolio. Other new portfolio additions include several universal drapes and back-table covers, as well as scatter radiation drapes. Additionally, Halyard* nonwoven roll goods are now sold to customers for medical, hygiene, wipes, industrial and filtration applications, where it has an annualized nonwoven capacity of 60,000 metric tons per year.

In 2019, the company installed a tri-lamination line to produce composite laminates combining its nonwovens with other substrates such as films to make unique structures. The company also started up a Reicofil meltblown asset to produce meltblown media for wiper and HEPA applications. Additionally, to help better service its full customer base, the company upgraded asset capabilities to be more flexible to customer requirements, while investing in winding upgrades to enable supply on 3-inch and 6-inch core formats.

Processes: Spunmelt (Spunbond, SMS, Meltblown, Lamination)
Major Markets: Medical, hygiene, wipes, industrial and filtration

Owens & Minor, Inc., (O&M) is a Fortune 500 global healthcare solutions company integrating product manufacturing and delivery, home health supply and perioperative services to support care through the hospital and into the home.

O&M is an innovative global manufacturer of personal protective equipment (PPE) products. Its products are primarily manufactured in its Americas-based facilities using its own nonwoven fabrics produced in Lexington, NC, including spunbond, meltblown, SMS and customized laminate composites.

In 2018, Owens & Minor acquired the Surgical and Infection Prevention business of Halyard Health, a provider of healthcare supplies and solutions that target the prevention of healthcare-associated infections. Halyard, once a part of Kimberly-Clark, produces nonwovens in Lexington, NC. These nonwovens are consumed internally and sold externally to customers in the medical arena.

Owens & Minor’s acquisition of the Halyard brand expanded the company’s customer reach globally and allowed it to positively impact more patient care experiences, in addition to adding greater scale to its product portfolio offerings for its customers, according to Patrick Robert, senior global director, Surgical Solutions and Nonwovens. “The acquisition also added a global manufacturing network and vertical integration that gives us greater agility to respond to the changing needs of our healthcare customers, for example when we were able to rapidly ramp up our production of nonwoven PPE in response to the emergence of Covid-19,” he adds.

Recently, O&M introduced two AAMI Level 2 isolation gowns and a new version of its flagship AERO CHROME AAMI Level 4 gown as part of its growing gown portfolio. The company also launched several universal drapes and back-table covers.

Last year, O&M expanded to a new market focused on selling Halyard nonwoven roll goods to customers for medical, hygiene, wipes, industrial and filtration applications, where it has an annualized nonwoven capacity of 60,000 metric tons. “Our commitment to quality, legacy of innovation and our focus on delivering value to our customers differentiate us from our competitors,” says Robert.

O&M has also made several investments to broaden its manufacturing capabilities and better serve its customers. In 2019, the company installed a tri-lamination line to produce composite laminates combining its nonwovens with other substrates such as films to make unique structures. In 2021, it expanded warehouse capacity for raw materials and rolls to ensure supply continuity for its customers. The company also started up a Reicofil meltblown asset to produce meltblown media for wiper and HEPA applications.

“Moving forward, to better service our rolled good customers, we are upgrading our assets capabilities to be more flexible to customer requirements and allocating more manufacturing and warehouse capacity for non-medical applications,” Robert adds.

According to the company, demand for PPE has now stabilized, though it varies by category with certain product segments experiencing less intense demand. O&M anticipates continued demand for products made in the Americas and for products that do not rely on foreign supplies due to the nature of current supply chain interruptions.