Minium: ODU Alum Retooled his Manufacturing Plants to Produce COVID-19 Protective Gear

By Harry Minium

The safe choice for Murry Pitts would have been to reduce production, furlough some of his employees and ride out the ongoing financial crisis.

His company, Burlington Medical, has prospered in recent years by making surgical radiation protection gear for doctors and nurses. However, as COVID-19 began to overwhelm hospitals in New York and other big cities, elective surgeries virtually disappeared and demand for his products fell.

But Pitts knew the right decision for the 100 Burlington employees, as well as the well-being of healthcare workers in the United States and Europe, was not to retrench.

Instead, he retooled his manufacturing facilities in Newport News and London, England and began producing protective wear for tens of thousands of healthcare workers on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

"We re-purposed our facility and bought needed equipment," he said.



The first item Burlington Medical began to produce was surgical masks. With raw materials purchased from North Carolina, Burlington Medical is currently making 5,000 masks per day in Newport
News and has plans to increase production.

After listening to feedback from doctors and nurses, the company began manufacturing a headband with buttons that releases pressure for those who wear the surgical masks all day.

His company is also making 10,000 disposable gowns per week, plastic shields and splash proof glasses and cleaning chemicals designed specifically to kill the COVID-19 virus.

His business has doubled in the last few months and continues to grow, he said. However, ODU basketball coach Jeff Jones, a close friend, said Pitts didn't pivot his business to fatten the bottom line.
"He's an entrepreneur, a business guy," he said. "But this really became important to him because of his employees and because of the societal benefit.

"Murry is very loyal to and very proud of his employees and he wanted to help people. I'm proud of what he's done."

Gov. Ralph Northam heard what Burlington was doing a month ago and called Pitts to ask him if he would supply Virginia hospitals before selling protective gear elsewhere.

"I told Gov. Northam that we would provide our products to Virginia hospitals," Pitts said. "Virginia is my home."

Pitts is a Norfolk native whose father was in the Navy, which resulted in the family moving around quite a bit. He graduated from ODU, with a degree in Criminal Justice.



However, instead of following that career path, he entered the business world.

 "ODU taught me all the social skills I needed to be successful," he said.

He landed a job with a shipping company and worked his way into senior management. In 1988, he acquired Pell Paper Box in Elizabeth City, N.C. Eight years later, he bought another company, merged the two and christened it Carded Graphics.

He built Carded Graphics from a company with 34 employees in a 60,000-square foot manufacturing facility in Staunton, Va., into one with 200 employees in a 120,000-square foot facility.

After selling that company in 2015 to Graphic Packing, he stayed with the company as VP of sales and operations for the east region for a year. He then became CEO of a global Swiss, converting machine manufacturer.

Pitts attempted to retire a few years ago but said: "I got bored after three weeks."

So, he went to work for three private equity firms, one of which owns Burlington Medical. He's is Burlington Medical's CEO.

He lives in Charlottesville, but works five days a week in Newport News, staying at a hotel in City Centre. 

Pitts has been generous to his alma mater, especially ODU's athletic program. He recently made a large donation to ODU's basketball program and shares suites in Chartway Arena and Kornblau Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium with friends

At age 61, he says "I'm not done yet. There's still so much work to do."

"Our medical supply chain is a mess, and the coronavirus is bringing it to light," he said.



"People now know that we have to have domestic sources for medical supplies. We can't rely overseas manufacturers in a crisis.

"We're trying to help fill that need."

Pitts has not laid off any employees, a blessing at a time when more than 30,000 Americans have lost their jobs. When he gathered with his more than 100 Newport News employees in March to tell them the plant would stay open and shift production to other products, some were so relieved that they cried.

"Our employees have made us successful,'' he said. "They deserve the credit for the good work we are doing."

He said most of the products Burlington is making for the coronavirus will remain in demand, especially cloth masks that are selling out as quickly as his company can make them.

"People are going to be freaked out the first time they go out in public," he said. "Masks are going to be around for a while.

"Eventually, once the rush is over, we'll try to make them hip and cool with graphics and colors."

Don't be surprised, given his love for his alma mater, if some of those face masks come with an ODU logo.

"You know, might just make Old Dominion masks."

Contact Minium @hminium@odu.edu