Top Glove Invests US$17.5 Mln On Condom Production

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 (Bernama) -- Top Glove Corp Bhd has allocated an initial investment of US$17.5 million (RM75 million) for the first phase of the company's condom production starting August 2018. Executive Chairman, Dr Lim Wee Chai, said the move was part of the company’s diversification exercise to mitigate intense competition in the glove market. "The factory and machinery would be ready by August next year," he said to reporters at a corporate presentation at Invest Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 2017 here Wednesday. He said the company aimed to increase its global market share to 30 per cent in 2020 from the current 25 per cent. Going forward, he said, Top Glove would increase automation in its facilities and employ more fresh graduates to replace its foreign workforce, said Lim, adding that in the past four years, automation has helped it reduce dependency on workers by 34 per cent or more than 2,000 workers. On Top Glove’s overall business, Executive Director, Lim Cheong Guan, said the company planned to grow its glove business in China to surpass that in Japan over the next five years. The China market currently contributed two per cent to the company's total sales while Japan stood at eight per cent, he said. "There is a great potential for growth. For this reason, we have one or two factories built annually to cater to global demand," he said. To-date, Top Glove’s 26 factories and 500 production lines produced some 48 billion gloves per annum. Invest Malaysia Kuala Lumpur is an annual event organised by Bursa Malaysia Bhd for the global investing audience. -- BERNAMA