Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) The scare of swine flu appears to have made Indians more conscious of personal hygiene, going by the increasing sale of products like hand sanitizers, gels, wet wipes and liquid soap over the past month.
“Suddenly everybody seems to have become conscious of personal hygiene. The demand for things like hand sanitizers has shot up in the past few weeks,” said North Delhi Chemists Association president Ashok Jain.

“We’ve seen a 100 percent jump in sales of hand sanitizers, hand gels and wet tissues in Delhi and surrounding areas,” Jain told IANS, adding that with fear looming large, this was only going to increase.

Concurred All Delhi Chemist Association president Kailash Gupta: “After masks, sales of hand sanitizers have gone up. If earlier stores were selling 10 bottles, now they are selling 100.”

In India, the market for hygiene products including hand sanitizers is valued at Rs.170 billion ($3.4 billion) annually.

Pharmacists admit they are doing brisk business with products such as hand sanitizers, which earlier were in the slow-moving category.

“Certainly, people have become more conscious, and liquid hand wash sales have increased,” said Maneet Nagia, owner of a pharmacy on Arya Samaj Road in Delhi.

According to Gupta, schools, too, have contributed to the increase in sales, having made it mandatory for students to carry hand sanitizers.

Said architect Aditi Sen Sharma, whose child goes to kindergarten: “My daughter’s school has instructed me to put a hand sanitizer with other school items. I feel this is a good move on its part.”

Little wonder then that healthcare product manufacturers have stepped up efforts to cash in on the swine flu scare.

For example, home and personal care major Hindustan Unilever has begun promoting its Lifebuoy product range including soaps, liquid soaps as well as hand gel and other sanitizer products with the tag line: “Wash away swine flu germs”.

One advertisement by the company, running in leading newspapers, says Lifebuoy products are “proven to protect from H1N1 type virus”.

Similarly, GD Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures the popular cream Boroline, has begun promoting its anti-bacterial product Suthol on the themes, “It’s time to stay clean” and “Be calm, do not panic”.

Other brands like Clarus, Disney Consumer Products, Dr. Fresh are also in demand apart from a slew of Chinese alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

“Earlier, the demand was limited and mostly from hospitals and hotels. But now everyone is buying these products,” said Pavneet Singh, managing partner of PavLin, a Bangalore-based company that supplies hand sanitizers to hospitals and offices.

“In fact, in the last few weeks, corporate firms have suddenly became conscious and the demand has increased manifold. We are supplying huge volumes to at least 30 top IT companies and large BPOs,” Singh said.

–Indo-Asian News service

ash/ank/jg