Nonwovens Industry China, Ringier Trade Media Ltd 03.04.21
As the global aging population increases, the number of patients with ulcers, bedsores and other diseases or problems keep rising, which is driving the global medical dressing market to continuous growth. These circumstances, combined with advantages of lower labor costs and a sophisticated value chain, has led to a number of large medical dressing OEMs —active in the international market—emerge in China.
On the journey of their development, the business models of these market leading players also shifted from pure OEMs to the combination of brand owners and OEMs. Winner Medical, Zhende Medical and Allmed Medical are recognized as the industry’s top three largest companies after years of worldwide expansion, business extension across the value chain and diversification, especially in 2020, when they recorded historically high revenues by providing products in combating Covid-19.
Winner Medical: Expanding from medical market to household sector
Many medical consumable product manufacturers in China recognized that it is hard to grow quickly if they stay in the low added value medical consumables market which also feature product singularity. To promote growth, many companies choose to introduce high value added new products and put more focus on the promising personal care market. Winner Medical is one of the companies that have put large resources and efforts in finding new clients, defining, positioning and expanding their business scope and establishing diversified sales channels.
All of this hard work has resulted in high revenue growth in recent years. In the first half of 2020, Winner Medical achieved a 98.52% increase in sales, to RMB 4.18 billion, with net profit increasing to 349.14% on a year-to-year base to $160 million, which is almost equal to the whole year revenue in 2019.
Winner Medical’s 100% cotton spunlace nonwovens, “Winner” medical products and “PurCotton” consumer products or daily necessities compose the major business portfolio of Winner Medical. Today, the company further introduces the brand new “PureH2B” masks with advocation of beauty, health and nature.
Starting from a medical dressing business, Winner Medical puts lot of energy in promoting its independently developed 100% cotton spunlace, in parallel with this, the company launched its “PurCotton” consumer products, targeted at high end consumer markets, which has enabled Winner Medical to successfully expand into the household segment.
“PurCotton” consumer products answer the need for quality products that come in close contact to the sensitive skin of women, children and babies. Additionally, Winner Medical invests heavily in on-line and off-line sales platforms; the underlying medical care features of its products also appeal to consumers. These branding measures combined together contribute to the company’s fast-growing revenue.
Currently, “PurCotton” is a well-known brand in China. At the end of 2019, it has more than 247 off-line stores in 50 plus cities across the nation, where consumers can access key products including but not limited to cotton towels, napkins and baby diapers. These products are also available in over 5000 off-line selling points, as well as e-commerce platforms like Tmall, JD, Winner Medical official website and APP.
While the revenue proportion of the consumer business grows, Winner Medical responded quickly at the very beginning of the pandemic in 2020 and its efforts combatting the Covid-19 pandemic also accelerated the development of the company; the recent introduction of brand-new product series like napkins, cotton diapers, and the new marketing model include live sales, on-line community sales fuel its growth further.
Zhende Medical: Profits in the first half of 2020 exceed last five years in total
Zhende Medical Co., Ltd. is an integrated medical dressing business player. Currently, its key product lines cover basic wound care products, infection control and protection products, ostomy care and advanced wound care products. In addition, the company continuously introduces new products designed for cleaning and disinfection, sports rehabilitation and other applications. Zhende now ranks as one of the leading medical dressing manufacturers with a broad product portfolio and capacities.
In the first half of 2020, Zhende generated $60 million revenue, with net profit of increasing 401.24% and 1544.74% from 2019 year on year base. Among these, the sales of protective products related to Covid-19 including masks, protective coveralls, barrier gowns amounted $410 million and business revenue after deduction of protective products related with Covid-19 is RMB 1.166 billion, increasing 61.62% compared to the year before.
This means that in the first half of 2020, the Covid-19 combating related business is the main revenue generating force for Zhende, which only accounts a relatively small portion before the pandemic.
In 2018, Zhende sold $65 million in protective products like masks, which accounts 3.83% of its revenue. In the first half of 2019, the figure was $40 million; the figure of the first half of 2020 dramatically increased 7651.69%. The brilliant performance put Zhende in the spotlight of the stock market.
Another group of figures may even better explain its performance. In 2014-2019, Zhende achieved net profit of $687 million in total, and the net profit in the first half of 2020 alone is more than $361 million than the total of the past five years.
The outbreak of Covid-19 accelerated the increase of capacity in protective product manufacturing. Each day, about 10 million flat masks and KN95 masks respectively, 50,000 pieces of protective clothing and barrier gowns come off of its production lines.
Many of the products are sold in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania countries. Statistics from the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products (CCCMHPIE) shows, Zhende has ranked in the top three of medical dressing exporters in many consecutive years. In many cases, the company acts as an OEM to provide products according to the technical specifications and quality standards set in the purchase orders by overseas medical device brand owners.
Analysts point out that although Zhende Medical sells a lot of medical dressings worldwide, the OEM business model limited its margin. To grow seriously, Zhende needs to establish its own reputation and marketing system in the international market.
Allmed Medical: Accelerating business coverage across the whole value chain
As an enterprise providing basic medical consumables for medical institutions and patients all over the world, Allmed Medical Products Co., Ltd, has a deep understanding of the industry with over 20 years of production experience. This helped it become one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of medical dressing products in China, with products covering infection barrier and protection, wound dressings and nursing and surgical products.
Most of medical dressing products manufactured by Allmed are exported to leading medical device brand owners in the overseas market. Today, the company has expanded its business into the whole value chain from substrates, semi-finished products, finished products, packaging and sterilization to inspection with international advanced technologies. In March 2019, Allmed has been listed in Shenzhen stock market in China, with a clear strategy to increase its emphasis on the domestic market.
Allmed has stretched its capacity to the maximum in order to manufacture protective products to fight Covid-19. Data shows that Allmed has supplied two-thirds of the N95 medical masks and two-fifths of surgical masks used in the Hubei province of China during the outbreak of Covid-19.
In the first half of 2020, Allmed sales revenue and net profits reached $2.7 billion and $857 million, respectively, compared to last year, most of which comes from infection control and protection products, which is $1.3 billion, increasing 3376.63%, accounting for more than 50% of the company’s total revenue, in which the share of wound dressings is 30%.
Allmed also optimized its business structure and strengthened its marketing focus in China, and as a result, revenues generated in the domestic market raised sharply. Statistics show, in the first half of 2020, Allmed harvested $988million in sales in China, increasing 519% compared to $20 million a year before; the domestic market weight increased from 12.11% to 36.4%, while the overseas market weight decreased from 87.89% to 63.6%.
Covid-19 is just one factor driving the domestic revenue to increase, the strategy of steadily pushing forward its domestic and overseas market, also called as two-wheel driven business policy, definitely made the domestic revenue increase a clear trend for Allmed, while its overseas market will be expanded and strengthened at the same time.
In August 2020, a disease control and protection products manufacturing base with a RMB 1 billion investment from Allmed started construction. This investment is designed to complement the missing point in providing protective products and further optimize the company’s product portfolio. In April 2020, Allmed set up a joint venture, which started manufacturing surgical masks and KN95 masks after installing the production lines and packaging facilities, with annual capacity of 860 million pcs of flat surgical masks and 110 million pcs of N95 masks.
Allmed also extended its reach in the upstream markets with the introduction of two state-of-the-art Reicofil nonwovens production lines from Reifenhauser. One is the first 3.2m RF5 SMMS line in Asia for the production of medical nonwovens, the other is a 1.6m Reicofil meltblown line for filtration layers used in N95 and N99 masks.
With these investments, Allmed becomes one of the high-quality nonwovens manufacturers. The further internal vertical business consolidation will enable the company to process medical products independently.
With advanced nonwovens production lines, smart/automated final products manufacturing capabilities, as well as cost management systems, centers designed for R&D, manufacturing, inspection, disinfection and sterilization, training and education functions, Allmed is fully involved in the infection control and protection industry to produce masks, protection coveralls, surgical gowns with improved product performance, with an aim to establish its competitiveness in the global market.
On the journey of their development, the business models of these market leading players also shifted from pure OEMs to the combination of brand owners and OEMs. Winner Medical, Zhende Medical and Allmed Medical are recognized as the industry’s top three largest companies after years of worldwide expansion, business extension across the value chain and diversification, especially in 2020, when they recorded historically high revenues by providing products in combating Covid-19.
Winner Medical: Expanding from medical market to household sector
Many medical consumable product manufacturers in China recognized that it is hard to grow quickly if they stay in the low added value medical consumables market which also feature product singularity. To promote growth, many companies choose to introduce high value added new products and put more focus on the promising personal care market. Winner Medical is one of the companies that have put large resources and efforts in finding new clients, defining, positioning and expanding their business scope and establishing diversified sales channels.
All of this hard work has resulted in high revenue growth in recent years. In the first half of 2020, Winner Medical achieved a 98.52% increase in sales, to RMB 4.18 billion, with net profit increasing to 349.14% on a year-to-year base to $160 million, which is almost equal to the whole year revenue in 2019.
Winner Medical’s 100% cotton spunlace nonwovens, “Winner” medical products and “PurCotton” consumer products or daily necessities compose the major business portfolio of Winner Medical. Today, the company further introduces the brand new “PureH2B” masks with advocation of beauty, health and nature.
Starting from a medical dressing business, Winner Medical puts lot of energy in promoting its independently developed 100% cotton spunlace, in parallel with this, the company launched its “PurCotton” consumer products, targeted at high end consumer markets, which has enabled Winner Medical to successfully expand into the household segment.
“PurCotton” consumer products answer the need for quality products that come in close contact to the sensitive skin of women, children and babies. Additionally, Winner Medical invests heavily in on-line and off-line sales platforms; the underlying medical care features of its products also appeal to consumers. These branding measures combined together contribute to the company’s fast-growing revenue.
Currently, “PurCotton” is a well-known brand in China. At the end of 2019, it has more than 247 off-line stores in 50 plus cities across the nation, where consumers can access key products including but not limited to cotton towels, napkins and baby diapers. These products are also available in over 5000 off-line selling points, as well as e-commerce platforms like Tmall, JD, Winner Medical official website and APP.
While the revenue proportion of the consumer business grows, Winner Medical responded quickly at the very beginning of the pandemic in 2020 and its efforts combatting the Covid-19 pandemic also accelerated the development of the company; the recent introduction of brand-new product series like napkins, cotton diapers, and the new marketing model include live sales, on-line community sales fuel its growth further.
Zhende Medical: Profits in the first half of 2020 exceed last five years in total
Zhende Medical Co., Ltd. is an integrated medical dressing business player. Currently, its key product lines cover basic wound care products, infection control and protection products, ostomy care and advanced wound care products. In addition, the company continuously introduces new products designed for cleaning and disinfection, sports rehabilitation and other applications. Zhende now ranks as one of the leading medical dressing manufacturers with a broad product portfolio and capacities.
In the first half of 2020, Zhende generated $60 million revenue, with net profit of increasing 401.24% and 1544.74% from 2019 year on year base. Among these, the sales of protective products related to Covid-19 including masks, protective coveralls, barrier gowns amounted $410 million and business revenue after deduction of protective products related with Covid-19 is RMB 1.166 billion, increasing 61.62% compared to the year before.
This means that in the first half of 2020, the Covid-19 combating related business is the main revenue generating force for Zhende, which only accounts a relatively small portion before the pandemic.
In 2018, Zhende sold $65 million in protective products like masks, which accounts 3.83% of its revenue. In the first half of 2019, the figure was $40 million; the figure of the first half of 2020 dramatically increased 7651.69%. The brilliant performance put Zhende in the spotlight of the stock market.
Another group of figures may even better explain its performance. In 2014-2019, Zhende achieved net profit of $687 million in total, and the net profit in the first half of 2020 alone is more than $361 million than the total of the past five years.
The outbreak of Covid-19 accelerated the increase of capacity in protective product manufacturing. Each day, about 10 million flat masks and KN95 masks respectively, 50,000 pieces of protective clothing and barrier gowns come off of its production lines.
Many of the products are sold in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania countries. Statistics from the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products (CCCMHPIE) shows, Zhende has ranked in the top three of medical dressing exporters in many consecutive years. In many cases, the company acts as an OEM to provide products according to the technical specifications and quality standards set in the purchase orders by overseas medical device brand owners.
Analysts point out that although Zhende Medical sells a lot of medical dressings worldwide, the OEM business model limited its margin. To grow seriously, Zhende needs to establish its own reputation and marketing system in the international market.
Allmed Medical: Accelerating business coverage across the whole value chain
As an enterprise providing basic medical consumables for medical institutions and patients all over the world, Allmed Medical Products Co., Ltd, has a deep understanding of the industry with over 20 years of production experience. This helped it become one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of medical dressing products in China, with products covering infection barrier and protection, wound dressings and nursing and surgical products.
Most of medical dressing products manufactured by Allmed are exported to leading medical device brand owners in the overseas market. Today, the company has expanded its business into the whole value chain from substrates, semi-finished products, finished products, packaging and sterilization to inspection with international advanced technologies. In March 2019, Allmed has been listed in Shenzhen stock market in China, with a clear strategy to increase its emphasis on the domestic market.
Allmed has stretched its capacity to the maximum in order to manufacture protective products to fight Covid-19. Data shows that Allmed has supplied two-thirds of the N95 medical masks and two-fifths of surgical masks used in the Hubei province of China during the outbreak of Covid-19.
In the first half of 2020, Allmed sales revenue and net profits reached $2.7 billion and $857 million, respectively, compared to last year, most of which comes from infection control and protection products, which is $1.3 billion, increasing 3376.63%, accounting for more than 50% of the company’s total revenue, in which the share of wound dressings is 30%.
Allmed also optimized its business structure and strengthened its marketing focus in China, and as a result, revenues generated in the domestic market raised sharply. Statistics show, in the first half of 2020, Allmed harvested $988million in sales in China, increasing 519% compared to $20 million a year before; the domestic market weight increased from 12.11% to 36.4%, while the overseas market weight decreased from 87.89% to 63.6%.
Covid-19 is just one factor driving the domestic revenue to increase, the strategy of steadily pushing forward its domestic and overseas market, also called as two-wheel driven business policy, definitely made the domestic revenue increase a clear trend for Allmed, while its overseas market will be expanded and strengthened at the same time.
In August 2020, a disease control and protection products manufacturing base with a RMB 1 billion investment from Allmed started construction. This investment is designed to complement the missing point in providing protective products and further optimize the company’s product portfolio. In April 2020, Allmed set up a joint venture, which started manufacturing surgical masks and KN95 masks after installing the production lines and packaging facilities, with annual capacity of 860 million pcs of flat surgical masks and 110 million pcs of N95 masks.
Allmed also extended its reach in the upstream markets with the introduction of two state-of-the-art Reicofil nonwovens production lines from Reifenhauser. One is the first 3.2m RF5 SMMS line in Asia for the production of medical nonwovens, the other is a 1.6m Reicofil meltblown line for filtration layers used in N95 and N99 masks.
With these investments, Allmed becomes one of the high-quality nonwovens manufacturers. The further internal vertical business consolidation will enable the company to process medical products independently.
With advanced nonwovens production lines, smart/automated final products manufacturing capabilities, as well as cost management systems, centers designed for R&D, manufacturing, inspection, disinfection and sterilization, training and education functions, Allmed is fully involved in the infection control and protection industry to produce masks, protection coveralls, surgical gowns with improved product performance, with an aim to establish its competitiveness in the global market.
