Dover-Foxcroft lands $240,000 grant for wood fiber cloth

By Dawn Gagnon

Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The town of Dover-Foxcroft has been awarded a $240,000 grant on behalf of a new manufacturing company that makes wood fiber cleaning cloths, the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development announced Friday.

GLOBEco Maine says the product, DuraFresh, is more sustainable and durable than the average cloth and sponge products currently on the market.

 GLOBEco Maine

THE CUT OF THEIR CLOTH — The town of Dover-Foxcroft has been awarded a $240,000 grant on behalf of a new manufacturing company that makes wood fiber cleaning cloths.

“This grant award will have a direct impact on the creation of new career opportunities for Maine people,” DECD Commissioner George Gervais said. “The investment made in Dover-Foxcroft not only benefits this particular business, it also helps the commercialization of a new product in Maine’s evolving forest industry.”  

The Economic Development Program is administered by the department as part of the federally funded Community Development Block Grant Program. It provides communities with gap funding to assist identified businesses in the creation and retention of jobs for low- and moderate-income people.

“The CDBG award has been instrumental in allowing GLOBEco Maine to produce its finished product here in Maine,” Phil Pastore, chief executive officer of GLOBEco Maine, said, adding, “In the first two months of operation we have created five new jobs with three additional hires planned in the coming weeks.”

The initial workforce is for stitching, sewing, inspecting, packaging and shipping the cloths for nationwide retail distribution.

“We wanted to capitalize on Maine’s heritage in textiles and the available labor force in the region to launch our manufacturing operations in Maine,” Pastore noted in a recent news release posted on the company’s website.

“It was a good fit from the start and we hope to work together to rejuvenate the economy in a way that marries existing skills and infrastructure with innovative new products,” he said.

The company claims that the cloth rinses 99.9 percent germ-free after running it under tap water, compared to traditional or microfiber cloths and sponges, which generally rinse 20 to 45 percent germ-free.

As sales grow, the company plans to expand manufacturing operations at the facility and expects to hire additional workers to meet anticipated demand. GLOBEco Maine also plans to work with True Textiles in Guilford, Maine Stitching in Skowhegan and Little River Apparel in Belfast, according to its website.