For over a year the world has been battling COVID-19. We talked to Sven Jäschke about how the market for hand hygiene products has changed in the past month. In the interview, the Country Manager for Nordic, Central & Eastern Europe at GOJO Industries, manufacturer of the PURELL brand, not only looks back. He also gives us an exciting insight into the future of hand hygiene.
Sven, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. One year of the Coronavirus pandemic! How has the past year been for you?
Oh, I can sum that up in two or three seconds. The past year has just been wild, challenging and has exceeded everything that has ever been before.
What was the first thing that happened when the pandemic picked up speed a year ago?
It is not possible to say that exactly. Because we did several things at the same time pretty quickly. One example: when our offices all around the world saw how insignificantly the demand for hand sanitisers was growing, our parent company GOJO Industries ramped up production pretty quickly.
But that brought it certain challenges, didn't it?
It sure did. Things like bottles or pumps came to be in short supply. So we sourced these important components from all over the world. We didn't care what shape they had and whether they would fit our corporate identiy. We were only interested in having enough bottles and being able to provide our customers with our products.
But now let's turn the face to the future. Do you think the demand for hand sanitisers will remain so high once we have gotten over the pandemic?
We assume that the new normal will be about two things. First, hygiene must become more visible so that people feel safe in every environment. Secondly, everything will be about trustworthy brands. I believe that the combination of visible hygiene and the outstanding quality of the hygiene products in use will keep the demand for hand sanitisers like ours up. Not necessarily at the level of last year, but it will be exponentially higher than it was in 2019.
Quality is an important point: when hand sanitisers became scarce in 2020, beauty companies and distilleries were quick to enter the business. Is there a whole new competition raging out there now?
Yes, that's right, distilleries, chemical companies and so many others have tried to get a piece of the pie. But most of them have already turned their backs on the hygiene business. They lacked experience and their products did not perform well in tests. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned 240 of the new disinfectants in America because they were ineffective. We had the same in Europe. So: no, there is no new competition raging out there. And even if there was, we wouldn't worry. We have over 35 years of experience and our products are the result of years and years of scientific research.
