Pumped for new growth

TRADITION: Family employees of the Bosworth Company in East Providence are, from left, Douglas Reilly, vice president; Nathan B. Reilly, CAD designer; and Kenneth Bosworth, president/founder. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
TRADITION: Family employees of the Bosworth Company in East Providence are, from left, Douglas Reilly, vice president; Nathan B. Reilly, CAD designer; and Kenneth Bosworth, president/founder. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

The Bosworth Co. designs and manufactures hand-cranked and motorized pumps used in everything from boating to the collecting of maple syrup, but it all began with the bilge pump.

In 1982 owner Ken Bosworth, who was general manager of a firm known as the Dart Union Co. in Providence, started the business after Dart Union’s owner, George Champlin, had given his managers right of first refusal on some of the business segments, said Bosworth and Vice President Douglas L. Reilly.

Bosworth set up shop at 195 Anthony St., moving the business in 1999 to its current location at 930 Waterman Ave.

“It seemed to me it was the only part of the business that had real upside potential,” Bosworth, now 84, recalled. “It was a gamble. Even at that time, we found uses [for] the pump in niche markets here and there. It [became clear] there was a broader need. And it was fun. I loved going to work. I still enjoy coming in.”

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The mechanically simple, yet versatile, hand-operated bilge pump is typically used at the bottom of a boat where water seeps in, Reilly said. All boats have some type of bilge pump that draws up the bilge and pumps it overboard.

The suctioning capacity, along with the capacity to push out or “exhaust” fluids, makes the pump a prime candidate for modifications for a wide variety of applications: for water filtration, kayak and marine uses, sanitation, chemicals, hazardous-material use and maple-sap collection, Reilly said. In Canada, customers use the pump to draw in lake water at cottages.

“Customers would buy it and say, ‘This is great. Can it do something else or be connected to a garden hose?’ ” Reilly said. “So, that gave rise to many different variations of the pump.”

The main product, the Guzzler pump, is organized into 18 families of hand-operated pumps, eight families of foot-operated pumps and 25 families of motorized pumps, Reilly explained.

Bosworth and his wife, Nancy, own the business. Their daughter Susan, Reilly’s wife, works part time, managing marketing and human resources, and their son Nathan adapted the newest product, the Guzzler G2 Sap-Puller.

The bilge pump costs $72.75, but the G2, which is $1,075, competes in a market where similar pumps might cost up to $5,000, Reilly said.

The Bosworth Co. contracted during the recession, but rebounded well and sells its products either directly to end users, or through distributors and manufacturers of products featuring the pump as a component across the U.S. and Canada, in South Africa, Haiti and Europe.

“All this,” Reilly noted, “came from that one little bilge-pump design.” •

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