Gloves off at world’s biggest condom maker as sales slump

The condom manufacturing giant says people are having less sex during the pandemic, devastating its sales and forcing it to diversify into rubber surgical gloves.

The stresses of lockdown can drive couples apart as well as bring them together. Picture: iStock

It seemed an obvious Covid growth area, as locked down couples, forced to stay at home, entertained themselves in the oldest way known to humankind.

But the world’s biggest manufacturer of condoms has confirmed that people have been having less sex during the pandemic, devastating its sales and forcing it to branch out into the more lucrative business of making rubber surgical gloves.

Less than two years ago Karex, a Malaysian company that makes one in five of the world’s condoms, was predicting that stocks would run out because of demand from housebound lovers with nothing else to do. Instead it has suffered a 40 per cent drop in sales as condom use and distribution has slumped.

The stresses of lockdown can drive couples apart as well as bringing them together - and have separated many partners. A number of scientific studies have concluded that people have had less sex during the pandemic.

Doctors at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta found that fewer people surveyed were having sex. Their paper concluded: “Depression symptoms, fear, anxiety, irritability, boredom, confusion, and feeling of being isolated experienced during strict pandemic control measures, caused by stressors such as job loss, decreased monthly income, and the current state of the pandemic are influencing these phenomena.”

The reduction in social activities and holidays has also made it harder for people to form new relationships. Sex workers, who are large consumers of condoms, have also seen their business decline.

“As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, sex workers all over the world are experiencing hardship, a total loss of income and increased discrimination and harassment,” the UN Aids programme said. “As sex workers and their clients self-isolate, sex workers are left unprotected, increasingly vulnerable and unable to provide for themselves and their families.”

Many condoms are also distributed through sexual health programmes, many of which have closed under lockdown.

“A large portion [of condoms] is distributed by governments around the world, which have reduced significantly during Covid-19,” Karex’s chief executive officer, Goh Miah Kiat, told Japan’s Nikkei Asia website.

“For instance, in the United Kingdom, the NHS shut down most non-essential clinics because of Covid, and sexual wellness clinics which hand out condoms were also closed.”

Karex makes more than five billion condoms a year for international brands including Durex and exports them to 140 countries. It also has its own lines of speciality condoms, including those flavoured with the famously pungent and smelly southeast Asian fruit, the durian.

The company made a loss last year for the first time since listing on the stock exchange in 2013. It plans to use its expertise with latex to diversify into the manufacture of medical gloves, which are in high demand during the pandemic.

The Times