This American manufacturer focuses on eco-friendly and sustainable products.
The practice of tooth brushing dates to ancient times when tree twigs were plucked and one end was chewed to produce a crude replica of what we now call bristles.
While dental care has vastly improved over thousands of years, the evolution of a stick handle with a brushing end has remained constant.
In an industry of more than $8 billion annual sales in the United States, it is surprising that the behemoths of toothbrush manufacturing – like Oral-B, Colgate, Crest – would not attempt to change the status quo. The idiom “if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it” certainly seems to have been applied.
But leave it to American innovation to pursue improvements in a market ruled by major companies that manufacture in China.
Radius is an American manufacturer of dental care products including toothbrushes, dental floss, and floss picks. The company, which has been manufacturing for 42 years, is housed in a historic facility in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
“Everyone has a toothbrush and everyone doesn’t realize there is a better way,” said Radius owner and CEO Saskia Coleman. “Basically, a neem tree stick was the first toothbrush of man. It’s still used as a toothbrush in Africa and India. It’s the origin of the toothbrush.
“If you think about it, that shape never evolved. It’s always been a stick handle. No one ever moved past that rectangular shape.”
A Radius toothbrush has a luxurious, oval head that allows brushers to massage their gums and teeth at the same time. The handle is wide enough to provide an ergonomic grip for more effective teeth cleaning.
“It’s about support of your grip. The more support you have in your grip, the more control you are going to have on the tip of your toothbrush and how you go around your mouth,” said Coleman. “If you notice, with your regular toothbrushes the top of the toothbrush bristles splay out. It breaks down faster.
“The bristles at the tip break down faster because of all the pressure you are putting on your teeth and gums with your hand. You don’t even realize that you are brushing harder than you need to because you are gripping so hard at that toothbrush to sustain a good hold.
“If you have a nice, relaxed grip with an ergonomic handle, then it will in fact loosen all pressure you are putting on your teeth and gums.”
Radius was launched in 1983 by Coleman’s father Kevin Foley and partner James O’Halloran. Both men were architects interested in industrial design when they created the ergonomic toothbrush with 5,500 bristles which was significantly more than the average at the time.
The two started the company in New York before moving to an old feed mill in Pennsylvania. Coleman joined the company in 2008 and took over as CEO in 2011. In 2020, Radius manufacturing moved to a 46,000 square foot building in Kutztown that was once home to a large silk mill. Built in 1898 and restored in 2017, the building is now listed on the Historical Register.
Today, Radius has 57 employees at its fast-growing factory, which is more than double the workers the company had on the job last October. The reason for the quick uptick in production is the reshoring of its dental floss manufacturing and introducing a line of dental picks at the Kutztown plant.
“Once we turned on the floss picks manufacturing, that’s when a whole new production line plus the floss spool manufacturing things really took off,” said Coleman. “With two new production lines in January, we now run three shifts a day, seven days a week. It’s a lot of volume.
“Things are changing. Our most popular product was our children’s toothbrush, the TOTZ, and it is still our top toothbrush. But our floss business is the fastest growing. It’s triple digit growing right now and it happened right around the same time we started to make it in-house.
“The silk floss is its own animal. It’s doing really, really well. The floss itself is absolutely beautiful high quality, and it’s also made in the USA.”
The Radius manufacturing plant features eight injection molding machines, six of which are used for standard injection molding for toothbrush handles. Two of the machines produce floss picks and two different pieces of equipment are floss spooling machines. The company also boasts three state-of-the-art bristling machines and two heat-sealing machines.
Radius is a certified women-owned company that’s B Corp certified with an American Dental Association acceptance. These are all vital components that helped Radius break into the all-natural channel of toothbrush manufacturing.
“Over time, one of the things I thought was we really need to find our niche and grow within that channel and saturate the market there,” said Coleman. “We have always been in the natural products space because our first toothbrush was made from cellulose, which is millable, timber material-based resin.
“We didn’t have the deep pockets for advertising or to get into the drug store market like when my dad tried to sell in CVS. It just wasn’t working. But we are in all the natural product stores and in Walmart, Albertson’s, Kroger, and Wegman’s. We are in a lot of what we call food, drug, mass channels. We are also in Whole Foods, Sprout’s, and Natural Grocers.”
Toothbrush manufacturing in the U.S. has been a continuous uphill battle and Coleman knows all the logistical problems that arrive when manufacturing a top-quality product in America.
“We are fighting against companies with very deep pockets,” said Coleman. “It’s just tough, especially when you’re in a commodity sector like oral care and competing against very large manufacturers who make all their products in China. Even if they make a toothbrush and they say it is made in the USA, the handle is made in China and then it is bristled here.”
Beginning in the natural goods space, Coleman has always been cognizant of being eco-friendly with their sustainable products. So Radius manufactures with recyclable plastic and some of its brushes are connected pieces. The tip and the bristles can be taken off the handle so that only the top portion of the toothbrush is discarded when worn. The ergonomic handles, for both adults and children, can be used repeatedly. That cuts down on plastic waste.
“With us, you’re saving nine out of 10 toothbrushes from going into a landfill,” said Coleman. “Unfortunately, toothbrushes are not recyclable – no toothbrush is – so every single toothbrush goes into the landfill, even the bamboo ones. We try to work toward something smart like you can reuse the handle forever and then you are throwing away only a small portion of the product.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, all natural product stores were closed so Coleman gave a pitch to Walmart executives during its annual open call event for American-made products.
“That’s how I got a seat at the table. We did another one the following year and we got product in Walmart every time,” added Coleman. “That’s been a piece of the whole thing. Really focusing on how to make it with this dedication to Made in the USA.
“Made in America is 100 percent my commitment. There has never been anything else. It’s not a walk in the park setting up manufacturing in the USA after so many years of not having manufacturing here.
“For those who held on, like us, I’d like to think those who did hold on and not go the way of import/export are going to stick it out. It was blood, sweat, and tears for sure, but at the end of the day now we are really well positioned to leverage that moment in time and history in this geopolitical climate right now.”
To purchase Radius dental products online, including brushes and toothpaste for your beloved family dog, go to www.madebyradius.com.