Manufacturers in NYC: the bakers, garment shops, jewelers and fabricators of the five boroughs

This report is for fashion and product brands looking for a local maker, food founders looking for a bakery or co-packer, architects and contractors sourcing millwork and metalwork, job seekers, and B2B sellers whose customers are small urban manufacturers. It gives the official count by borough and specialty, how to find and vet a maker, the public companies headquartered here, and how to sell to shops this size.

The count

The US Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) for the five boroughs (Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens and Richmond counties), all manufacturing (NAICS 31 to 33):

By our calculation from the same county files, manufacturing is 1.2% of the 4.09 million jobs CBP counts in the city. Each count is of establishments, locations with paid employees: a bakery with a Bushwick kitchen and a Queens plant counts twice, owner-only studios and sole proprietors aren't counted, and a company's Manhattan head office is classed as an office, not a factory. Headcounts are as of mid-March 2023.

By borough

Per-shop and pay figures are our calculation. Brooklyn has the most manufacturers. Manhattan's shops are small but the best paid, which fits its mix of jewelry, fashion and specialty printing. The Bronx has the largest shops, averaging 16.9 employees, and 94 of its 269 manufacturing establishments are food makers.

What New York City makes

Employee totals here are sums of the borough figures. Where the Census Bureau flagged at least one borough's figure as high-noise (the noise added for confidentiality changed it by 5% or more), we haven't added it up.

The detailed codes are where a buyer should look:

Size

The Census Bureau doesn't publish every borough's counts for plants with 100 or more employees, so the 71 is derived: the published total less the published smaller size classes. Grouped, 3,561 shops have 1 to 19 employees (87%) and 448 have 20 to 99.

Finding a manufacturer in New York City

Match the need to the specialty first:

1. Clothing and accessories. The 292 cut and sew contractors and 96 women's and girls' apparel makers do the sewing; ask for a sample run and a production minimum before you commit.
2. Food and drink. Wholesale bakeries and food processors need a New York State Article 20-C food processing license from the Department of Agriculture and Markets, which covers baking, bottling, canning and repacking. Ask any co-packer for its license and its latest inspection.
3. Interiors and construction. Millwork shops (57) and ornamental metal shops (96) build stairs, railings, storefronts and cabinetry to architects' drawings; ask for recent projects you can visit.
4. Jewelry. 279 jewelry and silverware makers, many in Manhattan, cast, set and finish for brands and retailers.

For names, Made in NYC, an initiative of the Pratt Center for Community Development, describes itself as "a community of 1,900 New York City makers and manufacturers" and publishes a member list by product category; membership is free. ITAC is NIST's listed New York City affiliate of NY MEP, the state's Manufacturing Extension Partnership, for help with improvement rather than names.

Before you sign, confirm the legal entity with the New York Department of State's corporation records, and check the safety record: New York's OSHA state plan covers only public employees, so private shops fall under federal OSHA, whose Establishment Search lists inspections by company and ZIP code.

Public manufacturers headquartered in New York City

SEC EDGAR lists 99 companies with a listed ticker, a manufacturing SIC code (2000 to 3999) and a business address in the five boroughs. Most are head offices of consumer brands whose factories, owned or contracted, are elsewhere. The largest, checked against each company's latest Form 10-K:

We left out newspaper and book publishers that EDGAR codes as manufacturers (the Census Bureau classifies publishing in the information sector), STMicroelectronics, whose annual report on Form 20-F gives its principal executive offices at Schiphol in the Netherlands, and Royalty Pharma, a royalty investor.

Selling to New York City manufacturers

With 87% of shops under 20 employees, the owner is nearly always the buyer, and space is the constraint behind most decisions: a shop that's out of room buys equipment that's smaller, faster or shared, or it moves. Good triggers are a move or lease renewal, a new wholesale or retail account, a new 20-C license or a hiring push.

Worked example: a food safety consultancy

Illustrative example. Hudson Plate and its conversion rates are invented; the shop counts are Census data.

Hudson Plate Compliance (hudsonplate.example) writes food safety plans and prepares bakeries and food makers for state inspections and retailer audits.

• NYC food manufacturers: 915, of which 472 are retail bakeries and 139 commercial bakeries.
• Across all city manufacturing, 1,606 of 4,080 shops (39%) have 5 to 49 employees, the size Hudson Plate serves. At that share, about 360 food makers fit.
• Brooklyn and Queens hold 60% of the city's manufacturers, so the first territory is about 215 accounts.
• If one in eight agrees to a walkthrough and a third of those buy a plan, that's about nine clients.

The slow part is spotting who just signed a grocery or wholesale account, which usually brings an audit. Bebop can search for "Brooklyn and Queens bakeries and food manufacturers with 5 to 49 employees that started wholesale distribution this year" and write a playbook for each.

Subject: The audit that comes with [retailer]

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on getting into [retailer / the new wholesale accounts]. Most retailers ask for a written food safety plan and an audit within the first few months, and it usually lands in the busiest season.

We write those plans for Brooklyn and Queens bakeries and food makers and walk your kitchen with you before the auditor does. Would a 30-minute walkthrough next week help?

[Your name], Hudson Plate Compliance

For the city's businesses beyond manufacturing, see companies in New York City.

Next step: for how small plants buy and who signs, read the manufacturing industry guide.