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Up to Snuff?



increased performance capabilities boost industrial wiper growth



By Ellen Wuagneux
Associate Editor




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Let’s say you are a factory manager. Your employee has a messy spill to clean, and you have a choice of purchasing paper towels, rags, shop towels or nonwoven wipers. What would you choose? They may all be handy and cost-effective but the choice over which substrate fills your canister, tub or box comes down to performance. At the end of the day, which material will do the job most efficiently and effectively?

The steady growth levels being re­ported by suppliers and converters of nonwoven wipers indicate that the scale has been tipping in nonwovens’ favor recently thanks to ever-improving cleaning performance, durability and good cost-per-use ratios. Recent innovations that boost convenience and better dispensability have also helped.

The industrial/institutional wipers business is made up of three distinct sectors—reusables, rags and nonwovens, with nonwovens making up less than half (42%) of the total. In terms of value, the North American market for industrial/institutional wipers was worth about $2 billion in 2005, according to Ian Butler, INDA’s director of market research and statistics. “This does not include paper wipers,” he pointed out.

The largest segment, reusables, includes food service wipers and towels, shop wipers and restaurant napkins and is valued at approximately $900 million. Just slightly smaller at $880 million is the nonwoven wipers market, which includes food service, industrial and healthcare applications. The industrial sector covers general purpose cleaning and specialty wipers, such as low-lint wipers. Rags, which are usually made of cotton for single-use purposes, are the smallest sector, totaling about $290 million. Rags are used by painters and in jobs where oil, dirty water and grunge must be sopped up.