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Natto Vermont tells lawmakers staffing, expansion limits and regulations threaten growth of medical manufacturing
Summary
Representatives from Natto Vermont told committees the company produced 1.2 billion parts in 2025, employs ~350 people, and faces barriers including workforce shortages, housing, fire-code limits on building size, and potential plastics restrictions.
Representatives of Natto Vermont told a joint Senate-House hearing that the company’s medical-component manufacturing is a major local employer but faces several constraints that could limit future growth.
"We are 100% almost exclusively medical at Natto Vermont," said Ben Bristol, operations manager, describing two facilities in Royalton and Bethl and saying the company produced about 1.2 billion parts in 2025. Bristol said Natto Vermont employs roughly 350 production workers on four 12-hour shifts and reported about $92.5 million in revenue in 2025 and roughly $20 million paid out in wages to Vermont workers.
Bristol and an HR representative discussed a mix of operational challenges: persistent staffing and retention issues linked to long shifts in rural areas, competition for labor from neighboring regions with lower tax pressure, housing shortages that deter out-of-state recruits, and physical and regulatory limits on expansion. Bristol said a proposed expansion requiring an additional 200 workers went to Hungary because the rapid hiring need could not be met locally.
They also described regulatory barriers that raised costs during a recent expansion, including fire-code limits that made building additions prohibitively expensive without a firewall. Bristol warned that sweeping plastics restrictions could harm medical manufacturing, which relies on certain plastics for product safety and FDA validation.
Committee members asked about workforce training and potential connections to regional career-technical centers and Vermont State University; witnesses pointed lawmakers to the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development as a central contact for employers seeking training and recruitment supports.
No formal actions were taken during the hearing; presenters asked lawmakers to consider equipment or grant support and to coordinate workforce, housing and regulatory actions to keep capacity in Vermont.
