Attleboro Companies Received $77m in Federal Coronavirus Loans

ATTLEBORO, MA—Companies in Attleboro received over $77 million in loan approvals under the federal Paycheck Protection Program, according to data released Tuesday by the Small Business Administration.

The loans went to 580 companies and ranged from $408 to $2,694,000. Applicants said the loans would help them protect 7,625 jobs in Attleboro.

"It helped us a lot and made a big difference for us," said Jeff Nye, who operates Pleasant Printing Company in Attleboro. "We were considered essential and I couldn't believe how dead it was here."

The data released this week includes all loans under the program passed in March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and forced widespread business closures and layoffs. SBA released some loan data in July, but that data only showed loans over $150,000 and did not include specific dollar amounts.

The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and other media companies sued the SBA to release the full data set. In November, a federal judge ruled in favor of the media companies and ordered the SBA to release the data by Dec. 1. The data released Tuesday was current as of Nov. 24 and includes updates to the data released in July.

PPP loans are part of the CARES Act, a comprehensive COVID-19 relief package Congress passed in the spring. The loans are forgivable as long as a certain percentage is used for payroll. The program stopped taking new applications in August, but business groups are pressuring federal lawmakers and the Trump administration to renew the program.

In Attleboro, the loans went to businesses including:

• Family Medicine Associates of South Attleboro
• Massasoit Tool Company
• Antonia's International Foods, Inc.
• Supply New England, Inc.
• Environmental Systems, Inc.

"It kept us going a couple months,"said Jessica Medeiros, director of Just Kids, Inc. Pre-School in Attleboro. "We were able to open back up on August 31."

Statewide, there were nearly 118,000 loans totaling $14.27 billion. In their loan applications, the companies that received the loans said they would help protect 1.17 million jobs in Massachusetts.