About
The Merrow Sewing Machine Company manufactures industrial overlock, crochet, and end-to-end seaming machines in Fall River, Massachusetts. The company traces its origins to 1838, when the Merrow family built a knitting mill in Merrow, Connecticut, and Joseph Millard Merrow devised the first Merrow crochet machine in the family machine shop in 1868 to finish the tops of knitted socks. By 1887, the business was designing, building, and selling sewing machines exclusively, and it later moved production to Hartford, Connecticut. In 2004, brothers Charlie and Owen Merrow organized a buyout of the Merrow Machine Company, renamed it and moved it to Massachusetts.
Merrow machines are industrial equipment sold to apparel makers, technical textile producers and other commercial manufacturers rather than to household sewers. The company engineers and builds its machines in Fall River and uses 5-axis computerized milling machines to produce components, including the cams that drive its stitch mechanisms. It keeps spare parts in stock for older Merrow models and sells through a network of agents in more than 60 countries. Some of the components are imported. Its machines are used in the production of apparel, home textiles, and military uniforms, and the company markets a stitch technology under the ActiveSeam name.
