Market Scenario
The cleaning and hygiene market (including retail, detergent, disinfection, food & beverage, hospitality) is still very fragmented with unorganized segment still penetrating small towns and rural markets. The Tier I & II cities are now looking for special cleaning products and the drive is also very much due to the complex engineering requirements, stringent environmental laws and regular audits and checks by the statutory bodies. The cleaning hygiene requirements in organized segments, especially in HoReCa, hospitals, airports, railways, educational institutes, building & commercial segments and places of worship, demand highest level of sanitation due to the chances of getting exposed to maximum contamination.
“Imagine an office where the cleaning & hygiene is not maintained well, it can lead to employees getting frequently ill, loss of productivity, absenteeism and heavy losses for the organization. We might have experienced many aircrafts getting sanitized during the outbreak of certain communicable diseases. The demand and expectation are growing every day. We need to appreciate that we are trying to graduate from cleaning commodities like acids and phenyls with some successes but still a large part of India has no access to specialized cleaning products,” avers Verma.
A lot of multinational and Indian companies are focusing on creating demands, educating the customers/prospects on the need to have a clean India. Even the government has given it a priority to provide proper hygiene and sanitation systems to everyone. India being a global hotspot of manufacturing in various segments, the country is equipped to learn from the developed world, the available technology in this segment.
“Manufacturing in my opinion is not a constraint. I believe the demands from the customers are being met completely as of now and the production facilities are equipped to do so for the next few years as well. The real challenge is educating the masses on their contribution towards the economy by not creating waste, cleaning up themselves and teaching everyone not to make the surrounding and environment dirty,” explains Sumeet.
With ever changing market conditions and clients’ dynamic & specific demands, manufacturers need constant R&D process for developing new products and improving efficiency and costing of existing products. “At Altret, we constantly sense the pulse of the market/customer’s futuristic needs and develop/customise the products to meet their specific needs. We study the specific cleaning problems of clients, the surface, available cleaning chemicals in the market, ROI of chemical solution and then develop appropriate chemical. It goes through conditional/time, property testing and after application impact. Once proven, the product is launched in the market. From time to time, feedback is taken from the market for improving the product,” says Nadeem.
“The market in India is just booming with more and more players foraying to sell their products in the campaign for having a clean India. With Swachh Bharat mission, we are confident enough that, more and more people will be creating newer products. Finally, I would like to say that even though all products may look alike, any formulator worth his salt will be quick to tell you that not all surfactants are created equal and that some cleaners are better than others, given the situation,” says Naik.
A collaborative and comprehensive approach by all the stakeholders in cleaning and sanitation can help restructuring this unorganised sector. Thinking quick sanitation without using chemicals is out of question. Adapting to eco-friendly measures at all stages right from formulation to packaging and dispensing is need of the hour.
