Watch: Photojournalist Darren Calabrese takes a look inside the Stanfield’s factory in Truro, N.S., where workers like Janice Davidson are producing medical gowns for health-care workers. The Globe and Mail

VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY DARREN CALABRESE

The sewing machines have started up again inside the old Stanfield’s factory in Truro, N.S., filling the big brick building with the hum that has been its soundtrack since 1882.

For Jon Stanfield, the company’s chairman, president and chief executive, that sound is soothing after weeks of agonizing silence following the layoff of 200 employees amid collapsing retail orders. But instead of the company’s trademark long johns, underwear and T-shirts, his factory is producing medical gowns for Canadian health care workers in the fight against COVID-19.

The 138-year-old plant is up and running again after Mr. Stanfield, 48, the fifth generation of his family to operate the company, secured contracts from the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia to produce more than three million gowns. It will mean the return of 180 jobs, producing as many as 130,000 gowns a week.“It’s an emotional moment, and there’s a lot of pride we were able to do this,” he said. “I wanted to be part of the solution, rather than just fold up the tent and g oing home and waiting for it all to go by.”

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Open this photo in gallery Jon Stanfield, president and CEO of Stanfield's Ltd., stands outside the factory.

Stanfield’s has survived two world wars, the Great Depression and countless swings in the market, but it has never had to adjust its operations quite like this.

To operate during the pandemic, the company split production into smaller shifts, spaced workers further apart and trained employees to sanitize their work stations and equipment. All movement, including lunch breaks and entrance to the factory, is tightly controlled now.

“There’s a lot of new protocols. It’s not like it was March 1, when you walked into the factory and did whatever you wanted – go get a coffee, talk to so-and-so,” he said. “People have to be retrained for this new situation.”

Many laid-off workers didn’t feel safe returning to a factory setting during an outbreak, he acknowledged. But more than 70 did, and the company is hiring another 108 as it ramps up production.

It’s been a head-spinning turnaround. Less than a month ago, Mr. Stanfield personally laid off most of his employees and worried about the future of a Canadian garment company that predates Confederation. Retail orders had tanked, and public health officials were advising him to shut down.

As he walked through the empty plant built by his great-great-grandfather, he wondered what role Stanfield’s could play as the coronavirus upended the world’s supply chains for medical gear. “It was so quiet, it was eerie,” he said. “I had extreme anxiety after laying everyone off. I had no answers for them. I just said, ‘I’ve got to do something about this.’ I went into survival mode.”

Within a few days, he developed a prototype medical gown and applied to the federal government’s call for manufacturers willing to retool to help with the COVID-19 effort. He also spent weeks “badgering” provincial bureaucrats and using every bit of political clout he has to get Nova Scotia on board, too. “Once we had a prototype, I went to government and said, ‘We have a solution. Come on, let’s start this thing,’ ” Mr. Stanfield said.

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Open this photo in gallery New hire Melissa Wright, right, and Lynn MacFarlane, left, join dozens of others sewing gowns.

Open this photo in gallery Valerie Grant, who normally works in the packing department, disinfects an area organized for employees to be properly distanced during breaks.

Open this photo in gallery Signs in the 138-year-old plant show employees where to find hand sanitizing stations.

After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced March 31 that Stanfield’s had been chosen to manufacture personal protective equipment for front-line health care workers, Mr. Stanfield realized he needed to make good on his plan. He admitted he panicked briefly before he got back to work. “When that came out, I basically hid under my desk, because I wasn’t ready for it,” he said. “The phone wouldn’t stop ringing.”

Switching his factory over from producing cotton-blend underwear to polymer gowns required some work. The new fabric, sourced from another Truro manufacturer, Intertape Polymer, is a lightweight, reusable material with a tear-away design, but it is slippery when sewing and can be tricky to cut and work with. It required some new equipment, but it’s not a dramatic change from what Stanfield’s workers were already doing before the pandemic, he said.

The fabric also had to be inspected and approved by Health Canada, workers had to be hired on short notice and trained to use the new material, the plant had to be reorganized and the final details of the contract had to be hammered out. In the late stages of planning, a federal purchaser called and told Mr. Stanfield they had until midnight to agree on a deal.

To pull it off, Mr. Stanfield said he was working 20 hours a day. There were many moments when he thought it might all fall apart.

“I think it’s astonishing how fast it all happened,” he said. “But it goes to show you when the private sector works with government and they’re both motivated to create a solution, it can happen fast. There’s lessons learned from all this.”

The six-month, $24-million contact with the federal government is for 2.6 million disposable medical gowns. Stanfield’s 16-week, $4.32-million contract with Nova Scotia has an option to be extended. The first shipment is expected to leave the plant April 17.

Open this photo in gallery Rob Fleming, distribution and warehouse manager, works in the warehouse where the first order of gowns is waiting to be shipped.

Mr. Stanfield hopes producing medical garments will remain a part of his business in the future and argues it’s in Canada’s national interest to have a domestically produced supply available, in addition to Asian-made options, when supply chains return to normal.

“We need a balance of what we can make in Canada. I’d hope that over the long-term Stanfield’s can continue to make gowns for health authorities around the country,” he said.

It’s the latest evolution of a company that has a history of responding to global events. In the 1890s, Stanfield’s invented shrink-proof heavy woolen underwear that became popular during the Klondike Gold Rush. In the First World War, the factory provided wool blankets for soldiers in the trenches, and in the Second World War it supplied underwear to the military. Canadian troops have worn Standfield’s as recently as the Afghanistan War.

Continuing that tradition means a lot to Mr. Stanfield, who started working at the plant when he was 13. By the time he was ready to take on a full-time role after university, he’d done almost every job in the place. This has been his biggest, and most rewarding, challenge yet.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “I know we’re only sewing gowns, but it’s what we can do, and it’s what Truro can do, and it’s what Stanfield’s can do.”

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