Main Competitors
Traditional soap producers
Soap is a common and familiar the commodity of necessity to every company. Traditional soaps employ pleasant scents and dyes to encourage hand washing compliance. However there is no way to verify if hand washing has occurred and traditional soaps do little beyond the pleasant scents to encourage hand washing.
The largest current soap producer, Dial Corp, consistently achieves strong sales, and has enjoyed strong market share in the commercial markets. Producing a wide variety of soap products, Dial has maintained 18% in market share over the last decade. The other largest commercial soap providers include Kimberly Clark, Gojo, SoftSoap, Provon and NXT.
Alternative hand washing compliance systems
HyGenius, a product produced by Compliance Control Inc., is a complete hand washing compliance system that is installed (and leased) in businesses like restaurants, hotels, hospitals and receive. The system includes a small control box that controls water temperature, pressure and run time.
By systematically controlling these factors, employees can be both trained and monitored in their hand washing frequency and technique.
Periodic reports stored on the computer and linked to the Internet can be produced to indicate the number of times per month employees have been washing their hands, and the estimated savings that the system has created through efficient water use.
This system has limited value to business managers because they are expensive to install and lease, and do not necessarily increase employee compliance. They provide managers the ability to track usage, but do not help control day-to-day hand washing compliance individually or immediately.
Disposable Gloves
Hypo-allergenic gloves are the solution provided by some organisations to combat the threat of hand washing non-compliance.
To limit the risk of hand contamination, many restaurants and all hospitals require the use of gloves. Although gloves eliminate the risk of direct hand contamination they are not without downfalls:
- Gloves can carry bacteria in-between fingers, and on the glove surface, causing similar cross contamination to that of bare hands.
- Disposable gloves can cost a location upwards of $5,000 each year.
- Gloves can provide a false sense of security, causing employees to substitute gloves in place of proper hand washing.
- Gloves rip and tear.
Industry Participants
The soap industry is highly fragmented. There are more than forty different Institutional soap products that compete in the market.