Have you ever had a situation where a customer needed a glove—and you couldn’t get the right size, or color, or mil thickness?
Maybe they were on backorder. Maybe something more complicated was involved, like labor issues at the factory or the port.
In the food service market, price can be an outsized factor for single-use gloves. With a lot of eateries operating on razor-thin margins, operators often must be frugal.
At the same time, safety and hygiene are paramount when working with food. That makes disposable gloves much more than simple accessories—they are vital tools in preventing contamination and ensuring the safety of both staff and customers (and, ultimately, the business).
The disposable glove industry is not widely known for its dedication to customer service.
That is, of course, not a universal statement; many vendors have good, even great, relationships with customers. For the most part, though, the disposable glove industry is where one business sells a commodity to another: It’s purely transactional.
When you think of professions with high injury rates, you most likely turn to such jobs as commercial fishing, logging, or roofing. Janitorial work may not seem perilous—but the injuries jan/san crews suffer should not be taken lightly.
Especially troublesome are hand injuries, which can result in missed work, elevated worker’s comp premiums, and less quality control. A solution can be as simple as ensuring employees have the right glove for the job—something that AMMEX specializes in.
During the pandemic, many distributors scrambled to find a glove vendor—while others dropped products altogether, including single-use gloves, because of the difficulty and/or cost of obtaining them.
Have you asked why you are buying from your current disposable glove vendor? Now might be the time to make sure that your organization has a clear understanding of what differentiates your suppliers.
Most disposable glove factories prefer to run their production lines almost non-stop to make money, in a concept known as factory utilization. It is common that a factory needs a 50% utilization rate to break even.
Throughout 2023, factory utilization rates for most of the disposable glove industry have been well below 50% because of massive capacity added during the pandemic and high excess inventory amounts at the end-user level.
Costs of doing business in the disposable glove market seem to be leveling off after several years of big swings. United Parcel Service and the Teamsters reached a deal to avoid a strike by getting the raises the drivers wanted. Thus, higher labor costs will likely affect the price of most goods they transport.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association also forged their own deal after months of labor strife; you can expect that agreement to eventually factor into product costs as well.
As we look forward to Q4 of 2023, the year has been a mixed bag of outcomes for disposable gloves.
The pandemic boosted demand, and more gloves are used in North America than ever. At the same time, many large distributors and end users are still dealing with excess inventory, as prices have dropped and challenges with labor, logistics, and factory utilization continue.
Every quarter, AMMEX examines the impacts of key drivers on the disposable glove market.
The market, and the aspects of distribution surrounding it, are extremely nuanced. We don’t have a crystal ball, so we’re not telling you what will happen. We’re not even trying to make predictions—our goal is to highlight the primary factors influencing the market.
September is upon us, and with it, National Food Safety Education Month. It’s our annual reminder from the National Restaurant Association to help raise awareness among foodservice employees about proper handling of food.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that every year, an estimated 1 in 6 people in the U.S. (or 48 million people) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from eating contaminated food.
