According to a report published by Freedonia Group in March 2023, demand for manufacturing wipes is expected to advance 2.5% per year to $646 million in 2026, driven primarily by unit growth as prices moderate from inflation- and supply chain-related highs in 2021 and 2022. Unit growth will be supported by consistent increases in manufacturing activity precipitated by industries returning to pre-pandemic levels of operation and continued adoption of wipes as manufacturers recognize their cost and performance benefits within many industries.

Dry wipes have historically been more widely used in manufacturing settings due to their versatility and ability to be used in conjunction with solvents applied on site. This trend will continue despite improvements in wet wipe technology. Dry wipes are particularly favored in special purpose manufacturing applications, such as surface preparation and printing uses.

General purpose wipes accounted for 63% of manufacturing wipes sales in 2021, despite the continued popularity of specialty wipes. General purpose wipes are valuable as they can be used in a variety of industrial settings to cost effectively remove soils from manufactured products as well as from machinery, tools, and other equipment. Market growth going forward will be boosted by an acceleration in unit sales growth as U.S. manufacturing activity continues to rebound. Additionally, general purpose wipes usage will benefit from the continued implementation of the EPA’s Wiper Rule, which eases regulations surrounding their disposal.

Beyond manufacturing wipes, demand for wipes overall is expected to advance 2.3% per year off a relatively high base to $4.3 billion in 2026, according to Freedonia. While this growth rate is relatively slow compared to historical norms, it stems from elevated market levels, as pandemic-related sales spikes for various wipes (notably disinfectant wipes in 2020), supply chain challenges, and higher raw material costs led prices for wipes to jump in 2020 and 2021, inflating market value in those years.

In unit terms, wipe demand growth will accelerate, supported by: consistent increases in the industrial and institutional market, with major submarkets like healthcare and foodservice returning to pre-pandemic levels of operation product development that improves the functionality and environmental profile of available personal care wipes.

“The wipes market for industrial and institutional use continues to improve following the pandemic,” says Ann Halstead, director of marketing at Kleen Test Products. “More and more companies are requiring personnel to return to the office at least several days per week and most schools, athletic facilities and entertainment venues are back to fully in-person operations. These factors are pushing the demand for cleaning and disinfecting wipes back toward pre-pandemic levels. We expect continued growth in the industrial and institutional market as institutions work to avoid new Covid outbreaks and to limit the potential spread of other illnesses.”

Halstead adds that disposable single use wipes are becoming more attractive than a spray or liquid because they provide convenience, efficacy and efficiency. “Given the current tight labor market, this is of particular importance,” she says. “The wipe makes it easy to control the dispersion of solution and eliminates the need to wash towels. It is also more effective than continuous use of a used/soiled towel. Formulators have worked diligently to find the best combinations of effective chemicals combined with nonwoven options to create wipes that quickly clean and disinfect surfaces.”

While there are just some applications that are best served by using a rag, most applications are better served by disposable wipers made of materials that are sized and packaged in a manner that is more consistent, friendlier to store and ship, and are engineered for more specific attributes (such as solvent-resistant, low-lint, wipe-dry, single-wipe dispensing or pre-saturated with application-specific solutions), says Jessilyn Duke, executive vice president, Adenna, a member of Hospeco Brands Group.

“Rags are not typically produced for the purpose of wiping,” she says. “They are the by-product of garments (whether new or reclaimed), so capacity and availability can be impacted by fashion design and consumer demand, as well as consumer donations of used clothing. Paper/nonwovens, on the other hand, are produced for the intended use as a wiping tool. Paper/nonwovens also have a smaller environmental footprint vs. rags or rental towels when it comes to disposal of or cleaning used cloth wiping materials.”

 

Partnerships Prevail

In recent years, consolidation in the industrial wipes segment has allowed converters to offer a broader product lineup and reach more customers. Hospeco Brands Group (HBG), a leading producer of institutional and industrial wipes for a range of subsegments, announced two major collaborations this year, which have expanded its scope into new markets and new geographies.

In April 2023, HBG merged with Monarch Brands, a wholesaler and manufacturer of microfiber, commercial laundry linen, institutional textiles, and wiping products. This move dramatically expands HBG’s offering of wiping solutions and microfiber and adds complementary new lines to an already robust product mix.

With roots established in 1947, Monarch Brands is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, and serves diverse markets, including environmental services, hospitality, institutional, foodservice, industrial, and jan/san, with deep penetration in the whole of North America. Unlike other HBG brands, Monarch Brands has a solid retail presence with trademarked lines, from opening price points to luxury textiles, in the Americas and around the world.

The move adds complementary product lines to HBG, with some strategic overlap that further deepens the microfiber and wiping product offering. It also creates opportunities for mutual growth as both entities gain new products to offer existing customers.

“Joining forces with Monarch Brands exponentially strengthens the position of HBG in the microfiber and wiper segments—gaining us a near leadership-share,” says Bill Hemann, executive vice president of Hospeco Brands Group. “Similarly, Monarch gains the ability to sell HBG’s complementary products. We are perfect partner brands with aligned goals—providing meaningful product solutions and services through the commercial distribution community that help ensure clean, safe and productive environments and provide care and comfort to millions around the globe. Our now-shared customer base will immediately recognize the value of our combined resources.”

Two months before the Monarch merger, HBG acquired Innocore, an Ontario, Canada-based maker of Touch Point and Certainty Brands premoistened, nonwoven, surface and personal wipes, and other hand care products.

Certainty Brands is Canada’s industry leader in large format, ready-to-use, multi-surface disinfecting, sanitizing, personal-care and specialty wipes. The same high-quality Innocore products are known to U.S. customers under the Touch Point brand. The merger enables HBG’s customers to gain access to these high-quality formulations with broad brand recognition in both countries. It also enables Innocore customers to gain access to HBG’ full line of personal care, cleaning and protection products for sale to the away-from-home market.

“The addition of Innocore to HBG provides us with a stronger Canadian infrastructure, which in turn allows us to better support our current Canadian distribution partners,” says Hemann. “As our north-of-the-border distribution shifts to Innocore’s Ontario base, our partners can look forward to reduced lead times, an expanded product offering, and resident support. It’s very exciting.”

HBG will continue to market its Hospeco products while gaining access to the Certainty and Touch Point names in their respective markets, and the Innocore business unit will continue to operate under the Innocore name while having access to Hospeco’s products. Innocore’s full management team will continue to manage the business under the Hospeco Brands Group umbrella. Existing customers of both entities will continue to work with the sales and customer service teams to which they are already accustomed.

“Innocore is a perfect addition to our offering,” says Tom Friedl, CEO of HBG. “The business has been run with a set of core values that starts with ensuring the employees come first, something we feel is the genesis of Innocore’s incredibly positive customer experience. Certainty and Touch Point wiping solutions immediately become jewels in our product offering.”

According to Duke, the integration of the two companies into the Hospeco Brands Group collectively yields near industry-leading position on microfiber (Monarch) and strengthens its position in Canada and the U.S. (Innocore) in pre-sat wipes.

“With the addition of Innocore, we now have pre-sat wipe manufacturing in Canada (Toronto) as well as in the U.S. (Tennessee). Microfiber brands now available through all Hospeco Brands Group member companies include MicroWorks, SmartRags and Sphergo. We lead with our pre-sat wipe brands Certainty (Canada) and Touchpoint (USA),” she says.

In addition to HBG, converters like Essity and Ecolab have also focused on acquisition for growth. In February 2022, Essity expanded its wipes business with the acquisition of New Jersey-based professional wiping and cleaning company Legacy Converting, Inc., which manufactures sanitizing and disinfecting wet wipes, chemical ready wipes and dry wipes. Among the products being made by Legacy Converting are the EPA-regulated Everwipe brand of disinfecting and wiping products. Founded in 2004, Legacy Converting manufactures roll and folded wipes in a variety of formats including pop-up canister, bucket and resealable packs, serving customers in the public interest, commercial and healthcare market segments via the industrial and office supply sales channels.

“The acquisition of Legacy Converting strengthened our product portfolio and expertise allowing us to better serve the end customer,” Gilles Betourne, director of product management, explains. “Legacy Converting helps to not only expand our professional hygiene offering and a more profound surface cleaning and disinfecting expertise, it allows for easier fulfillment of customers’ sustainable hygiene needs through one partner.”

Through this acquisition, Essity offers customers a broader range of surface hygiene solutions to better service the enhanced cleaning protocols post-pandemic, with products like its Surface Hygiene wet wipes and chemical ready systems.

In late 2020, Legacy expanded with the new state-of-the-art factory in Bordentown, NJ, to allow it to scale to meet the growing demand and importance for disinfectant wipes worldwide.

Meanwhile, Ecolab Inc. grew its wipes manufacturing capabilities with the purchase of National Wiper Alliance (NWA) in 2021. NWA’s 500,000-square-foot wipes manufacturing facility located outside of Asheville, NC, recently added five new manufacturing lines. Under Ecolab’s leadership, the facility will continue its successful contract manufacturing business and will produce several disinfecting wipes products, including Ecolab’s Disinfectant 1 Wipe. Disinfectant 1 Wipe (U.S. EPA Reg. No. 1677-263) is a one-step, ready-to-use, nonwoven disposable disinfectant wipe that can be used as part of a comprehensive environmental hygiene and infection prevention program. It kills 44 organisms in 60 seconds and is approved by the U.S. EPA for use against SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Sustainable Solutions

Like its sister products in the consumer categories, institutional and industrial wipes continue to face pressure to be more eco-friendly. This has led to the development of more products focused on sustainable supply chains. Earlier this year, the Sontara brand partnered with TruCotton, a provider of unbleached cotton fibers, to create an oil absorbing industrial wipe under its new Sontara EC(R) line of compostable engineered materials. The addition of hydrophobic unbleached cotton allows this wipe to absorb almost five times its weight in oil, as well as having a similar water absorbing capacity. This industrial wipe offers a sustainable, compostable solution without the need for oil-absorbing plastic fibers.

Meanwhile, Berry Global has developed a range of sustainable wipe substrates geared at professional markets. Based on a range of technologies including spunbond, spunlace and SMS, Berry’s offering for hard surface disinfecting brings together the most comprehensive range of materials available for this purpose, each offering a particular absorption capacity, absorption speed and liquid retention to suit most applications.

In addition, the Endura brand offers cost-effective recycled options using PIR content, for customers conscious about circularity and reducing their carbon footprint. Currently four Berry materials are available using such content: Endura Scrubby; Endura Meltblown; Endura Spunbond; and 100% rPET Spunlace.

“Over time, we’ve invested in an unrivalled range of nonwoven technologies for the wipes market,” says Berry Global’s product manager, Wipes, Eileen Calder. “This gives us a truly comprehensive breadth of offering, giving wipes converters one source for all of their needs.”

Part of HBG’s sustainably-focused efforts center on rightsizing its paper/nonwoven wipers, which strongly supports sustainability by reducing production waste, yields less volume of materials going into the waste stream, and, in some  instances, reduces the packaging size, allowing the company to reduce its carbon footprint by increasing the number of units on a skid and therefore increasing the number of units it transports per truck.

As the largest convertor and packager of wiping products to the away-from-home marketplace, HBG has the broadest, most complete line of wiping products available directly from a manufacturer with an offering spanning rags and towels to microfiber to single-use and extended-reuse nonwoven wipers. In the nonwovens category, the company converts and packages a full offering of dry and pre-sat wipes for general purpose applications for janitorial, industrial, and MRO as well as specialty applications required in clean rooms, personal care, foodservice and automotive.

“We do see some growth in demand for sustainable wiping products. Within our current offering, products such as microfiber (extended use product that requires a lower amount of cleaning solution per application and also requires less detergent and lower heat when laundering the towels for reuse), scrim reinforced tissue and DRC (cellulose-based materials that are largely composed of recycled and/or biodegradable materials),” Duke says.

As the worldwide nonwovens substrate manufacturing community continues to innovate, both through technology as well as expanding capacity for fibers and materials, HBG continues to improve its own manufacturing and converting processes for quality and efficiency, while expanding its production capacity. “This allows us to continue providing our distributors with high-quality products at prices that allow them to be competitive. When combined with matching the right finished product to the application, our distributors are often able to provide through-cost savings to their end-use customers while improving margins for themselves,” Duke adds.

Witnessing that end users continue to demand more sustainable options, Kleen Test has found it extremely important for brands to offer eco-friendly products.  “Our Kleen Test R&D team continues to develop sustainable products for our customers by identifying safe and sustainable formulas which also deliver powerful cleaning efficacy and to look for substrates that incorporate more sustainable materials,” Halstead says. “For example, we manufacture products that are USDA Biopreferred and / or EPA Safer Choice certified. Additionally, we are working hard to incorporate packaging that eliminates the use of virgin resins and is recyclable and/or contains PCR content.”

Innovation is a key part of Kleen Test’s philosophy, regardless of the market. “Within the industrial and institutional market, innovation is focused on developing improved formulas that allow for broader kill claims with reduced clean times and continuing to develop more sustainable options,” she adds. “We are also exploring no-rinse formulas designed for use on food contact surfaces which could drastically simplify the cleaning process in restaurants and industrial food preparation areas.”