Ansell beefs up capacity to fight global pandemic

Ansell Ltd. has been strengthening its position as a global leader in the personal protective equipment sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has expanded and grown as demand for its hand and body protection goods increased.

At least that's the way Magnus Nicolin, CEO and managing director, views the manufacturer of gloves and protective clothing as it continues to increase capacity to handle the needs of its customers.

Melbourne, Australia-based Ansell is also looking to partner with qualified non-PPE companies in the U.S. and Canada as part of a program called Network of Heroes that it recently launched. Under the program, the firm said it will share its manufacturing expertise in order to boost the production of protective clothing for first responders and health care workers.

"A number of our products are being used in the fight against COVID-19, particularly our exam and surgical gloves, along with chemical protective clothing, which have been tested and certified to recognized standards for protection from infective agents," he said in the firm's annual fiscal 2020 year-end review issued in late August.

Nicolin praised the resourcefulness and dedication of the company's employees, whom he said have adapted well to a new working environment and worked hard to get products to customers.

"This is often in the face of significant challenges such as temporary government orders that enforced partial and full shutdowns in manufacturing operations in Malaysia and Sri Lanka in March and April, temporary shutdowns of warehouses as well as reduced freight capacities," he said.

Ansell has implemented strict protocols at the firm's sites globally "to protect our employees, particularly at our manufacturing and distribution facilities," Nicolin said. "I am encouraged that only a small number of our 13,500-strong global workforce have tested positive [for the virus] and that they have recovered or are recovering well."

Despite the challenges the company has faced during the last several months, he said Ansell remains committed to investing in its business to support long-term sustainable growth. Ansell expects capital expenditures in 2021 to be between $95 million and $105 million.

Ansell recently increased by more than 40 percent its manufacturing capacity at plants in Xiamen, China, and Colombo, Sri Lanka, as demand for its protective clothing continues to rise.

In addition, it is localizing production at its facilities in Brazil and Lithuania, he said, although he did not provide further details, and officials at Ansell's U.S. offices in Iselin, N.J., did not return requests for additional information.

Ansell also is working to complete an expansion launched in October 2019 at its Lat Krabang, Thailand, plant that will boost manufacturing capacity for single-use gloves by 35 percent, according to Nicolin, who was scheduled to retire this year but has delayed the move until Dec. 31, 2021, because of uncertainties caused by COVID-19.

When its latest expansions are complete, the firm indicated it will focus on more automation to improve efficiencies.

Ansell has evolved well during the last 10 years, Nicolin said. For instance, in 2009 when the global financial crisis struck, the company was much more dependent on mechanical glove categories and other traditional products.

That's not the case this year, he said, when the heavy demand has been in exam and single-use gloves, which have tripled in production, as well as life science and body protection goods, neither of which were part of its portfolio 10 years ago.

The company's game plan is paying off on the financial front. For fiscal 2020, which ended June 30, the firm recorded sales of about $1.6 billion, up 7.7 percent from fiscal 2019.

Its health care business registered sales of $895 million, 13.8 percent higher than the previous year, while its industrial business posted sales of $719 million, 1.3 percent higher than in 2019.

Looking ahead to 2021, Ansell said in the annual report that the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy continues to evolve and, although it can't predict the severity of the pandemic, it does believe the virus will continue to be a challenge.

It also noted that exam and single-use glove supply shortages are anticipated, which likely will result in increased costs from suppliers. And it expects the need for health care products to rise but the industrial segment to remain weaker.

Meanwhile, Ansell continues to emphasize that there is a shortage of hand and body protection goods in the global market. To fill that production gap, Ansell said it will share its manufacturing expertise with U.S. and Canadian manufacturers, allowing other firms to produce protection products under the Network of Heroes program.

Ansell said it will provide detailed tool kits with step-by-step instructions, patterns and informative videos to manufacturers to guide them in the production of protective gowns and coveralls.

"The coronavirus pandemic has created major disruptions in the economy, and all industries have been faced with new challenges created by unprecedented market conditions," according to Paul Bryce, vice president and general manager of Ansell Chemical Solutions.

"Some businesses are idling, whilst others have been pushed to the very limits of their capacities. Ansell has been working tirelessly to maximize production, but we cannot meet the soaring demand alone," Bryce added.

He said Ansell is proud to share its expertise with other manufacturers for an important cause: "By leveraging our guidance, qualified manufacturers with sewing capabilities can redirect production to make protective clothing."

When it launched the manufacturing sharing program in late August, Ansell was facing a shortage of materials for its gown production. Shortly thereafter, DuPont Co. started a Tyvek Together program to partner with additional converters to increase the supply of Tyvek garments in the market.

DuPont and Ansell aligned to work together to help increase the production of isolation gowns for the North American market. Through the collaboration, Ansell will produce 600,000 isolation gowns made of Tyvek fabric for front-line workers.

"It is vital we come together as an industry to help the front-line heroes get the PPE they need to stay protected," said David Domnisch, global business leader of DuPont Personal Protection. "We had maximized our production of PPE through our existing converter network, and we believed that working with other companies to convert their PPE production to Tyvek would be the fastest way to protect more people.

"We began producing a new style of Tyvek fabric — Tyvek 1222A — to help support the needs for traditional Tyvek PPE, but we needed partners with converting capacity."