Nobel Hygiene Grows from Selling Just 10 to 10 Crore Adult Diapers

Adult diapers and the market for incontinence (yes, incontinence is a problem so solutions to it will have a market, surprise!) is growing fast. Nobel Hygiene was founded in 2000 and is India’s only manufacturer of disposable sanitary ware for all age ranges. Teddyy Basic Diapers is for kids, and everyone is fine with kids needing diapers. The product responsible for squeamish glances is Friends Adult Diapers.

Funny or not, adult diapers are a serious matter because of all the money it generates and because it serves an essential humane need for senior citizens. That’s why the brand founded by Kamal Kumar Johari with his own funds and angel investors then which secured capital from Access PE in 2013 and then in 2015 from CLSA is worth a curious mind’s query. Kartik Johari, VP of marketing and commerce for Nobel Hygiene responds:

We are both amazed and surprised. How did you manage to go from selling 10 adult diapers to 10 crore pieces of diapers?

The journey from 10 pieces to 10 crore pieces has been paved with the sweat and effort of our entire sales team, the credit for that lies with them. From ensuring stock availability to educating retailers, they’ve grown in capacity as the company grows. Initially, it would take months to offload a single container from Taiwan. Now, our daily output is several magnitudes higher than that! It’s truly been an exhilarating ride, and there’s more to come in the future.

[price for a pack of ten medium length diapers is 430 rupees and with increasing durability of the diaper, price can go up to about 670 rupees. Bulk buying is also available.]

10 crore diapers sold is a lot. How did you overcome the taboo surrounding the product?

We still try to do so, and we have a long way to go. As the market penetration is firmly in single digits, I think we haven’t overcome anything yet. The next step for us is to continue awareness building activities and to keep talking to caregivers to senior citizens so there’s an ongoing conversation about the need for adult diapers.

Share with us some best and worst memories while running the business

Worst memory: Our best sales guys used to be laughed out of retail stores by shopkeepers saying “Yeh buddha log chaddis nahi pehenta hai!!”

Super memories: After our first newspaper ad in a leading daily, we received over 150 calls in one day. That cemented in our minds the people’s need for this product.

You see, both our markets (the adult and baby diaper market) are very lowly penetrated, thus, the best is still to come. We took over 7 years to establish our brands in the country, and then moved to manufacturing. Since then have grown by over 45 percent this year.

The adult diaper market is roughly at rupees 500 crores, yet it is growing extremely fast at over 30 percent. The incontinence market is at under 5 percent penetration and our aim is to rapidly increase that number.

So there's a real need for this?

Absolutely. Adult diapers are used by a large swath of people; from someone who has mild incontinence (leaking a few drops of urine) to someone who is paralysed, or bed-ridden due to an accident. Incontinence is also a by -product of diabetes. In India, the diabetic capital of the world, which also is home to one of the fastest growing aging populations on the planet, there is a definite need for the product.

10 crore diapers sold is an achievement but what about the environmental pollution disposable sanitary ware causes?

We try to decrease the environmental impact of diapers, as an industry. The weight of adult diapers has decreased by 40 percent over the past 5 years, thus that’s less matter to be disposed of in the same time frame. Additionally, people rarely look at the alternatives, which would be to regularly wash beddings and surfaces, so as to not inconvenience seniors. The environmental cost of using all the extra water, and electricity on a washer/drier will be higher than using an adult diaper.