New England was a veritable hotbed of manufacturing activity at the turn of the 20th Century. As the Industrial Revolution waned and industrialized manufacturing became the norm, this area churned out half of all the printed cloth in the world. With such a massive industry concentrated in a single area, it’s no wonder specialty operations cropped up. Two of those were Merida and Matouk, and they’re both Rootstock customers!

The companies were recently featured in a Boston Globe article (If presented with an offer to subscribe, click the ad, then click back to read the story.) touting the impressive industrial staying power of Fall River, Massachusetts, the textile production hub known affectionately as “Spindle City.”

Merida crafts woven rugs from natural yarns in a 40,000-square-foot facility. The space may be filled with heritage looms, but those machines have been modernized to take advantage of new weaving methods, according to the company. This helps their craftspeople combine handwork with technology while keeping up with business growth. The company, founded in 1978, saw a 40% increase in sales in 2021.

Founded in 1929, Matouk quickly became well known for its high quality, dependable production, and product innovations. Today, Matouk continues its manufacturing of fine quality bed and bath linens in its 117,000 square feet manufacturing space, where nearly 300 workers spin out products across two shifts. Describing their facilities in the article, George Matouk Jr., the company’s CEO, said: “Our manufacturing environment is bright, safe, productive, collaborative, and modern. We have created the kind of work experience that would never be possible in a traditional mill building.”

Part of the company’s modernization bent was its deployment of Rootstock Cloud ERP. In a little over six months, Matouk realized a 223% return on its Rootstock investment while accelerating time-to-promise and improving price quote accuracy to support year-on-year growth of more than 10%.

“Having an integrated CRM and ERP system has helped us unlock efficiencies that we knew our business was capable of,” said Matouk at the time. “The ROI data is a clear indication that the right IT investment can be a boon to any business.”

While we don’t yet have a century’s worth of heritage at Rootstock (give us time!), we do take pride in helping manufacturers of all ages maintain their competitiveness with our modern Cloud ERP manufacturing software solutions.

Congratulations to Merida and Matouk on this well-deserved recognition and their continued success!