National Wiper Alliance Manufacturers, Markets and Distributes Wipes
business, distribution, jeff slosman, national wiper alliance in asheville, the slosman corp., wipes,
When most folks grab a wipe to soak up a spill, they probably don’t give much thought to the wiper industry.
Yet National Wiper Alliance in Asheville is a thriving enterprise, founded in 1996 by Jeff Slosman, whose family has been in the wiper business for more than a century.
“I started with the help of my wife and grandfather, who, at the time, was 85,” says Slosman, whose training ground was The Slosman Corp., which was founded in Massachusetts in 1902 and moved to Asheville in 1935 and still exists today. “While I worked my cell phone, calling customers and vendors, they handled all the packaging of our products in a few thousand square feet of borrowed warehouse space in one of the old tobacco warehouses,” Slosman recalls.
He explains that the name of the company “stands for what the business was intended to be” – national to cover the American market, wiper as a reference for anything used for wiping or cleaning, and alliance to reflect that the company is “people working together for a common interest.”
“I believed by working with my suppliers and customers that, together, we could build a successful business,” he says.
Slosman was right. In the company’s first five years, it changed locations four times, each time more than tripling warehouse space.
Today, National Wiper Alliance is a manufacturing, marketing and distribution operation with 34 employees, 130,000 square feet of manufacturing and inside warehouse space, and an additional 70,000 square feet of outside warehousing.
And even though the firm is called National Wiper Alliance, the company works internationally these days.
“Since this time last year [2006], we have exported in excess of 3 million pounds of roll goods in addition to material also converted into finished products,” Slosman says.
Since its inception, National Wiper Alliance pledged to work with recycled materials.
Early on, the company focused on traditional textile products, but as textile manufacturing waned in the region, the enterprise shifted its focus to nonwovens.
“We work with manufacturers to find homes for their material that did not conform to its intended use, as well as material overruns or discontinued products,” Slosman explains.
“We ensure that it [the material] will not find its way back into the market to compete with its intended use,” he adds, noting that the company also strives to distribute material that may have otherwise been destined for the landfill.
The firm markets a vast array of wipes, from “critical/delicate” wipes when lint and dust control are important, to heavy-duty, clothlike wipes used by hospitals for patient care.
The industries served include aerospace, automotive, industrial, food service and hospitality, medical, janitorial and sanitation, institutional and government.
Slosman is a third-generation Ashevillian who met his wife, Debra, when they were both in college at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.
“I am very family-oriented,” he says. “One benefit of having my own business was the opportunity to be able to have both of my children at my work with me when they were infants.”
Daughter Carson is 7, and son Bennett is 4, and their special place at National Wiper Alliance has evolved from a nursery to a “kids’ room,” Slosman says.
His love for his children and the Asheville area is one reason Slosman’s company exhibits a decidedly environmental bent.
“We all must do our part to protect and maintain the quality of life the area offers,” he says.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Ian Curcio
