Pandemic caused condom sales to fall, says Malaysia-based contraceptive giant Karex
While many would assume that people would have nothing to do “but have sex” indoors because of movement restrictions, that did not appear to be the case, Karex CEO Goh Miah Kiat told Nikkei Asia.
The Malaysian contraceptive company produces around 5.5 billion condoms a year and is a supplier to brands such as Durex and ONE Condoms. It also produces its own condom brands.
Karex had assumed at the start of the pandemic that condom demand would surge as people cooped up at home practice birth control because of to economic uncertainty, Bloomberg reported in March 2020, citing Goh. Goh also predicted a condom shortage at the time following pandemic-fuelled factory shutdowns.
Instead, condom demand slumped, not just for Karex but for others like Durex and Trojan, too, as lockdowns hit social life.
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Goh told Nikkei condom demand fell when hotels and motels closed, as these locations had provided privacy. The sex industry, too, was affected by the health crisis, with in-person sex providers facing a challenging market.
Large-scale government condom distribution programmes were also hit by the pandemic.
“A large portion [of condoms] is distributed by governments around the world, which have reduced [distribution] significantly during Covid-19,” Gold told Nikkei. “For instance, in the United Kingdom, the [National Health Service] shut down most non-essential clinics because of Covid, and sexual wellness clinics which hand out condoms were also closed.”Karex posted a full-year loss for the 2020 financial year, ending in June – the company’s first since it went public in November 2013. The company’s share price on the Bursa Malaysia exchange fell almost 50 per cent in 2021.
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In recent weeks, condom sales have improved, Goh told Nikkei. This is in line with data from other major condom sellers such as Durex and Trojan that reported improved sales as movement restrictions lifted.
But Karex is not taking any chances – it plans to diversify into medical glove manufacturing, which has seen explosive growth during the pandemic. Similar raw materials and technologies are used in condom and glove-making, said Goh, per the Nikkei.
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