Top Glove to invest Euro 20.8 m; files defence against Tillotson

By Simona Stankovska, ERJ staff

Malaysia -- Top Glove Corp. Bhd which claims to be the world's largest glove manufacturer with capacity for 29 000 million pieces per year and total market share of 24 percent, plans to grow by 20-25 percent in 2008 and will invest RM 100 million (Euro 20.8 million) in capital expansion.

The company said in an interview with ERJ, that it is looking to acquire production facilities in Malaysia because the country is more viable due to cheaper energy costs and its key management being located there as well as educated workforce and a stable government.

As part of its growth plans, Top Glove acquired MediFlex in 2007. Since the acquisition, which was finalised in March, Top Glove had turned the company around and it is now making profit.

The group expects its revenue in FY08 to grow at 26 percent

and 23 percent in FY09. Its net profit in FY08 is expected to rise 21 percent to

RM 125 million and 24 percent in FY09 to RM 155million.

The company said that latex allergy is not currently a concern as it feels that it is “a thing of the past.”

“Currently, with the new technology and advanced production process, our latex gloves able to comply with the minimum protein requirement set by the various authorities,” a company spokesman told ERJ.

“Also, we have powder-free latex gloves, which has even much lower protein content or the synthetic gloves, such as nitrile or vinyl which has no protein or allergy problem at all,” he added.

Top Glove has two latex concentrate plants located in southern Thailand, which supply around 60 percent of its latex requirement. The remaining 40 percent is sourced from other latex suppliers in Malaysia and Thailand, said the company.

In 2007 Georgia, US-based Tillotson Corp. files a suit against Top Glove for alleged intellectual property infringement under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. Top Glove said that it has got together with a few other Malaysian and Indonesian manufacturers and has filed a joint defence. The case is still pending.