Wipes Are an Industrial Staple

Roy Scharrer, director at industrial cleaner specialists Best Working Wipes by Orbizorb, took some time to provide insight on the hand cleaner market for industrial distributors.

Q Industrial Supply: What trends are driving product development in the hand cleaners’ market today?
A Scharrer: The driving trends in hand cleaners today are varied. With the pandemic, we saw massive demand and movement of manufactured premoistened wipes. Everyone was looking for quick and easy ways to clean hands, tools and surfaces, with the biggest driver being a wipe that could either disinfect or sanitize surfaces people were touching.

Many of the imported wipes ruled the day during the pandemic – this has shifted due to the lag time of the supply chain. We experienced large delays and increased shipping costs with the imports of these items. Once they started arriving the pandemic was drawing to a close, leaving many manufacturers and distributors with a glut of product on their shelves.

The biggest trend I see today is that most manufacturers are building for JIT shipments for distribution and retail. The imports are still arriving, and, with the reduction of shipping costs, they will continue to be available in the market.

Q Industrial Supply: How has your company responded to marketplace trends and/or customer demand?
A Scharrer: Orbizorb LLC – Best Working Wipes has responded to this marketplace trend by onshoring our manufacturing to our home state. Best Working Wipes are manufactured using all USA-made components. This decision helped us shorten our time to market and allowed our customers the flexibility to order product in smaller quantities instead of containers or truckloads. And our customers seem to be pleased as we are getting a lot of positive response for making our “Best Working Wipes” here in the USA.

We also focused on utilizing different substrates from polypropylene (plastic) to a variety of spunlace fabrics. These fabrics have a more biodegradable quality that the current plastic versions do not have. Spunlace fabric is also more durable and absorbent.

Q Industrial Supply: What are some new developments and improvements in your company’s products?
A Scharrer: At Orbizorb LLC - Best Working Wipes we are always looking to improve our wipes for the worker that does not have access to soap and water. We are also looking at making the wipes and the canisters more sustainable. There have been some significant improvements in this sector we are exploring.

Q Industrial Supply: What do you see coming for this market in the future?
A Scharrer: We are striving to pair a durable absorbent wiper with solutions that will work on a multitude of projects and still be easy on the hands. In response to the ever-increasing sustainability push by consumers, Orbizorb LLC – Best Working Wipes launched a 100% sustainable/biodegradable wipe for cleaning indoors and is especially useful for the outdoor/sporting markets

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INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE

The November/December issue of Industrial Supply magazine features an in-depth cover story about Kimball Midwest. Plus, we're featuring articles by contributing writers Dirk Beveridge, Frank Hurtte, and Mike Marks, as well as interviews with numerous product and distribution industry experts.