Amid the pandemic, companies, cutting across industries, are foraying into the manufacture of hygiene and wellness products to cash in on the growing demand.
Nippon Paint on Wednesday announced its entry into the segment with the launch of a range of personal protective equipment (PPEs) under the ‘Medifresh’ brand.
Its PPE product range — including hand sanitisers, facial masks and gloves — is primarily aimed at the painter community.
“We thought it’s a good initiative to start this segment especially targeting painters,” S Mahesh Anand, President – Nippon Paint (India) Pvt Ltd (Decorative Division), told BusinessLine. “Our distribution strength is only the hardware stores and paint-selling shops. Quite naturally, a normal customer will not come to these stores for such products but a painter will definitely buy only from these stores.”
Nippon Paint has close to 6,500 retail outlets spread across the southern, western and northern regions of the country.
On the buy list
Highlighting the heightened adoption of hygiene practices, Anand said the company foresees such products invariably becoming part of a painter’s ‘buy list’ even after the crisis.
“Typically, painters make a list of items — such as paint, primer, putty and other stuff like emery sheets, brush and waste cloth — before they start work,” he said. Going forward, sanitisers, face masks and gloves will become an inherent part of the list, he added.
The products, designed per WHO norms, will be manufactured under the private labelling of Nippon Paint Medifresh. “We do have the capacity to manufacture sanitisers and disinfectant liquids. We are currently doing it for our own internal consumption,” Anand said. “But, for public consumption, you need certain government licences for selling and, keeping that in mind, we have currently outsourced it to established bulk manufacturers.”
Product expansion
The company is also planning to introduce a range of other products such as surface disinfectants, aerosols, full cover gear and face shields.
“We were the first one to bring in aerosols in paints. Similarly, a lot of companies are getting into surface disinfectants recently,” Anand said.
“In the second phase, maybe after a couple of months, we will also be launching aerosol and liquid forms of disinfectants.”
He added that the government has currently restricted the sale of products with more than 90 parts per million (ppm) lead content. Aerosols, which need to be converted from liquid to gaseous form, will not be able to adhere to these norms.
Nippon Paint is also providing free sanitiser sachets to painters while purchasing paint. The move, company said, is to ensure the safety of the painters and reassure customers that safety protocols are being followed.