281-874-2131
STERILE MATE
15535 West Hardy Road
Houston, TX 77060
sterilemate.com
Long before George Broughton III signed a lease on a 12,000-square-foot warehouse space near Hardy Tollroad and Beltway 8, he knew North Houston was where he wanted to make his mark.
“It was so easy for me to decide on this area,” said Broughton, CEO of Sterile Mate, the medical and industrial supply company he founded in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I understand how economic investment can change a community.”
A former flight attendant and instructor with United Airlines for 15 years, Broughton hails from Chicago’s South Side, where he was a social worker before he landed in Houston in 2017 by way of Englewood, California. He said he’s witnessed both of his former communities’ revitalization through redevelopment and economic structure change. He said North Houston is primed for the same.
“I saw how economics can change a community, and I had a vision of great development happening here,” he said. “I saw the potential right away.”
Now, by bringing Sterile Mate to the area, Broughton hopes to count himself as one of the area’s change makers as the region shifts from primarily office development to a regional logistics and distribution hub. Not only is he basing his business here at 15535 West Hardy Road, he’s also in talks to rent out an additional 18,000 square feet of space across the street.
“I think we’re going to expand quickly,” he said, detailing plans to hire a staff of three to five warehouse handlers, a six-person sales team and three drivers as well as an accountant and receptionist.
He plans to have his staff – which he hopes to find locally – hired and up and running by the end of 2023.
“It was so easy for me to decide on this area. I understand how economic investiment can change a community”
George Broughton
“I’m really excited about being part of the revitalization and growth of this community,” he said.
Sterile Mate partners with several Houston hospitals and specializes in sourcing and delivering hard-to-find medical supplies, including those for diabetics and surgical procedures. Broughton said the idea for the company came to him after a friend approached him in 2020 about creating a marketing plan for a residential and commercial sterilization company.
Because of a pandemic-era employment deal with United Airlines that he’d taken advantage of, Broughton had the time to devote to building the plan and told his friend he could help. Though his buddy appreciated the marketing plan, he didn’t go with the name Broughton suggested – Sterile Mate. Instead of tossing a good idea, Broughton applied the name to his own venture. He said the move to work in the medical community also stemmed from valuable advice from his mentor.
“He said, whenever there’s tragedy, I should find a way to be of service to others, and I’ll always win,” he recalled.
Broughton took that mantra to heart. He reached out to a local hospital and quickly discovered they sorely needed masks and gloves, a scarcity during the early days of the pandemic. Armed with a mission, he went to work, and within 48 hours Broughton was able to find 100,000 of the exact surgical masks the hospital needed for its operating room department from a supplier in Ohio. The deal was worth $400,000.
“For some reason this company decided to trust me out of the gate to get these masks to the hospital and to pay for them in the next 30 days, and that was how Sterile Mate started,” he said.
Once he secured that first deal, Broughton ran his business remotely for three years, building contacts and learning the ropes of the industry. Now, with the recent addition of the North Houston warehouse, he can source and store more supplies. He said that expansion, coupled with his company’s close proximity to Bush Intercontinental Airport and downtown Houston, will be essential to Sterile Mate’s continued growth, allowing him to service his clients faster and more efficiently, all while operating more cost-effectively than he would in other areas of town.
“Coming here was all about strategy,” he said. “I want people to know that it’s vibrant here, that it’s a great place to live and a great place to work.”
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