The world’s top condom producer, Malaysia’s Karex Bhd, plans to raise prices by 20% to 30% and possibly further if supply chain disruptions drag on due to the Iran war, its chief executive has said.
Karex is also seeing a surge in condom demand as rising freight costs and shipping delays have left many of its customers with lower stockpiles than usual, CEO Goh Miah Kiat told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
“The situation is definitely very fragile, prices are expensive … We have no choice but to transfer the costs right now to the customers,” Goh said.
Karex produces more than 5 billion condoms annually and is a supplier to leading brands like Durex and Trojan, as well as national health systems such as the UK’s NHS and global aid programmes run by the United Nations.
The biggest surprise is that apparently top brands like Durex and Trojan, (and the UK’s NHS) don’t actually make condoms!? What, they just resell them from another company? And then they’re surprised that a single factor could disrupt their entire business?? Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket…
I mean, Apple doesn’t make anything, either – they design things. I find it unsurprising that condom brands do the same thing.