Why do prices of disposable gloves vary so much between products, and between those who sell them?
Why does inventory come and go? (Those hybrid vinyl/nitrile gloves that you may have loved during the pandemic are much harder to find now.)
The disposable glove market is in a vastly different position from the last couple of years. Yes, it’s still dynamic and unpredictable, but opportunities for glove distributors are everywhere.
The first two years of the pandemic caused havoc for everybody, and the glove market was certainly no exception. A global surge in demand for gloves sent manufacturers scrambling to keep up. The resulting fallout from being unable to deliver needed product pushed every manufacturer to increase production capacity. That led to ample supply coming online in the second half of 2022.
Fentanyl is a national health menace. The damage it causes is far-reaching and heartbreaking, and first responders are well aware of the dangers it poses in even casual contact.
Up to 100 times stronger than morphine, this synthetic opioid was developed for managing extreme pain in cancer patients. It has also been subverted as a highly addictive “recreational” drug, added to heroin or mixed into other drugs that pose potentially fatal risks to unknowing victims.
Is there a recession ahead? Some doomsayers believe there is.
Economist Nouriel Roubini, who correctly predicted the 2008 financial crisis, sees a “long and ugly” recession occurring in the U.S. and globally at the end of 2022 that could last all of 2023. (He also has a new book to sell, so keep that in mind.)
The disposable glove market is in a terrific position. In fact, opportunities for distributing gloves are greater than ever.
Why? Here are four reasons:
For importers and distributors affected over the last couple years by supply chain dysfunction—in other words, pretty much everybody—the big picture is looking a bit brighter.
Shipping bottlenecks are beginning to loosen. The recent drop in wholesale inflation (for the first time in two years) provided a sign that some of the U.S. economy’s inflationary pressures have begun to cool. The New York Fed’s Global Supply Chain Pressure Index fell for the third straight month in July, hitting its lowest point since January 2021.
You won’t find oversaturation in the disposable glove marketplace. There is always an untapped need, if you look in the right places.
One of our distributors, it turns out, didn’t have to look far. He saw potential in selling gloves, convinced his management that AMMEX was the company to work with, and has seen excellent results—all in a relatively short time frame.
Distributors who’ve been selling disposable gloves for a while understand the quirks of the market. To a distributor who’s new to the business, though, starting a profitable glove-selling program might seem a bit daunting.
We frequently get questions about getting started. What follows are the top 3:
Every distributor knows that happy customers lead to greater revenues. Of course, there are several nuances when it comes to selling disposable gloves, such as having the right product info, helping customers try out the product, and asking the right questions to identify the correct needs.
Our distributors frequently encounter end-users who are buying the wrong gloves for their intended purpose. Many are predisposed against using vinyl gloves under any circumstance, even when they deliver better-than-expected performance at a lower price. Learning as much as you can about your client’s needs can help you put your glove expertise to good use.
For the last couple years, nitrile industrial-grade disposable gloves have not always been easy to come by.
With the onset of the pandemic, manufacturers were forced to ramp up production quickly. They turned their immediate focus to exam-grade product to meet the overwhelming need in medical applications. For industrial nitrile, prices went up and availability went down.
