Marvel Gloves is the gloves manufacturer especially for higher risk application categories like chemical hazards, cut & impact resistant and even food grade gloves. Manal Farooq, Head Marketing, Marvel Gloves Industries, in this interview shares that company will be launching new range of ear protection items by the end of 2023.

How do you see the journey of Marvel Gloves since it was established in 1980? How is Marvel Gloves serving its customers? Which industries are driving demands for your products?

Marvel Gloves established its first glove knitting plant in Ankleshwar, Gujarat in the year 1980 under the leadership of its founder Farooq Abdullah and his brothers. At that time, when the safety gloves were made by workers following manual process of cutting and sewing, he realised and predicted the future of advance safety gloves than manually made cotton gloves in India as there was no other player in the market and in fact there was hardly any market for gloves due to lack of safety awareness and the safety industry was totally unorganised and premature.

The automotive industry in India is the third largest by production in the world as per 2023 statistics. The auto industrial revolution started with the liberalised policies introduced by the government in the year 1983. So many multinational auto companies such as Suzuki, Toyota and Hyundai where allowed to start investing in Indian market and also establish local manufacturing facilities in India. This began the era of safety industry to grow parallelly with major multinational car plants started establishing plants in India and also producing which gave major boost to the demand for safety products. Marvel was lucky to supply to all major auto mobile industries and their ancillaries since Marvel was pioneer in the field of advanced glove manufacturing as per international requirements. At the moment the majority of gloves demand comes from auto mobile sectors, pharmaceutical, engineering, oil refinery, food industries etc. Demand is going to grow with more and more companies investing in India considering its own market potential and also ability to fulfil export demand due cheaper labour and availability of infrastructure facilities.

What are the advantages of Marvel gloves? How do you manufacture high-quality products?

Marvel Gloves is producing wide range of gloves and also importing variety of gloves following the international standards to meet the demand of all major industries and all the products are certified as per the international standard like EN norms. The dedicated sales team is helping customers to understand their requirements, analyse the risk involved at workplace and also offer suitable product within the budget of the customer. There is no compromise in quality ever done by Marvel and doing best of the efforts to increase the awareness of the users and also offering wide range of gloves to choose from depending on the risk and also the budgetary requirement of each and every client.

Besides gloves, which are the other protective gears offered by your company? What are your plans to boost your non-gloves business further?

Majority of the clients are looking for one stop solution for safety products and therefore in the year 2002 Marvel also started importing other safety items than gloves like safety eyewear, helmets, ear protection items to make a range available for the customers and all those products are made as per EN standards or American standards. The majority of the business share is from safety gloves because Marvel is known for hand protection and it has earned highest reputation in an Indian market due to its dedication to serve its customers with the quality products. It has also won the most prestigious national award for the quality from the President of India which is the highest honour for any company.

Are you seeing an increase in awareness about safety in India? Is this leading to growth in demand for safety products?

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and all major companies focus on Indian local market and also export from India. During major pandemic like Covid, all other major countries struggled and their economy collapsed or severely affected, Indian economy survived and on the contrary it went on rising. With the rising industrialisation over a period of time, the demand for safety is also paralleling increasing. Many international safety products brands also started marketing their products in India for around two decades directly or by appointing dealers and some already started manufacturing in India because most of the foreign MNCs started looking for reputed brands or certified products and unfortunately at the initial period Indian auto boom, hardly any good quality safety products were produced as per their the international requirements.

Unfortunately, due to lack of awareness of safety standards by industries and majority of market is price driven, the safety is compromised. The Indian market is dominated by inferior quality products imported or made in India with fake markings like CE or any international standards and even consumers also don’t verify or bother to check the authenticity of its genuineness of products or actual performance of the product against the risks at work places.

What are key challenges before personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturers? What can be some of the probable solutions?

The biggest challenge is the lack of awareness about the safety norms in India and also the misconception about products with marking printed with CE treated as authentic and certified. As we all know that European Union has nominated specific laboratories within Europe and outside Europe doing the test as per various EN standards related to various Safety products and only those recognised by the European Union have the authority to issue the report and certification. Since many small importers In India have realised the awareness problem, they have started importing gloves and other safety items with markings without any testing or certification and because of the price benefit, they are being able to sell the products. 

Even the safety knowledge is very limited, majority of dealers are looking for cheaper prices and this encourages small importers to bring more such low grade material and dump into Indian market.  Majority of consumers are also happy because of the price benefit but they don’t realise the risk of accidents at workplace which can cause them more trouble. They lose trade work force, pay medical expenses after injuries and even have to compensate the workers and above all their productivity is also affected. The most important change required in Indian safety market is to bring awareness about identifying products which are being circulated and sold as certified because of fake marking printed and those products are risky for safety and health of the workers.

What kinds of emerging trends are you seeing in the PPE/Gloves sector?

The safety industry is growing at very high speed in the global market. There are lot of new developments especially in gloves but not every company in India ready to adapt to the new levels and select product suitable for specific usage or risk at workplace. But the present moment, the demand for technical gloves like cut 1, 2, 3 and 5 are highly demanded. Regarding other PPE, trends have changed in the global market and it will take at least 3 to 5 years more to understand and make changes due price constraints.

Could you please offer some general tips for selecting the right gloves?

Based on the observations and years’ experience dealing with many end customers and the safety dealers in India, there is a major issue found when it comes to the selection of the right product to meet the specific risk at workplace.

As we all know that the workers use their hands constantly throughout the day at work places and one mistake or selection of wrong glove can lead to lifetime of injury or disability to the workers. Majority of the accidents reported or related to hand related injuries in India. Usually the employees have to choose the right glove to protect the hands of the workers from specific risk. As every workplace is different and the safety managers have to conduct the internal survey and do the assessments to determine the potential risk involved and choose the right gloves from the available options in the market irrespective of the price to eliminate or reduce the risk. 

Generally in the industries there are three major hazards every employer should be aware like handling of sharp objects, exposure to hazardous chemicals and temperatures of the objects handle at the workplaces. So, every employer should identify their risk and if they cannot then they should hire or consult safety experts for additional information. Even the other options which are like choosing the right size as many times improper size also leads to the accidents or injuries during process handled by the workers, they should check or inspect the used glove after every shift or regular visual check or inspection to identify the problems if there is any issue like tear, cut or any damage to the gloves can also put the workers at the risk. The dexterity he is also very important for comfort of the workers.

The certification must be verified as per the markings printed on the gloves and also check the authenticity of the issuing authority. Majority of the low costs gloves available in India have no certification or even products match the test standards mentioned or printed on the gloves or its pack. Just choose them because of the pricing and open the risk to die workers.

Since gloves come in variety of range, styles and sizes suitable for various applications, the company or the safety managers need to do their risk assessment select the glove matching the work process handled by the workers as even minor injury could delay productivity and also anchor unnecessary additional expenses and even loss of trained workers and even productivity.

There are many companies who are selling mainly B grade or used gloves received from other countries as scrap, repacked in India and supplied to customers without informing them about the products grade mainly sold as fresh and such products can create safety hazards as well as can increase the risk of the hygiene issues and contaminate the products handled.

Please highlight some of Marvel Gloves' recently launched products. Also, are you planning to introduce new products in the coming months? 

Considering the present market conditions and demand from top clients, Marvel Gloves has recently introduced many different types of gloves especially for higher risk applications category like chemical hazards, cut resistant, impact resistant and even food grade gloves. We will also be launching our new range of ear & eye protection items by the end of 2023 and many new models in safety eyewear very soon.

What are your short and the long term growth plans?

The year 2023 is full of challenges and there are lot of ups and downs with the Indian economy. The demand for safety products is on rise but due to awareness issue of right gloves for right work process or risk involved, the market is confused because of many importers bringing untested or on low grade gloves. Since there is not a much of safety norms in India and majority of Indian companies rely on European standards, the fake marking on the products and even awareness issue giving rise to such sellers to disturb the market growth and even the companies do not bother about the product grade or quality leads to very limited market for premium or tested good products.

But Marvel Gloves, under the vision & guidance of Farooq Abdullah, will always keep on trying to bring more and more awareness among users and will bring products meeting not only the safety standards but also match the budgetary requirement of each customer so maximum consumers can provide or use right products to minimise the accidents and also to make Indian workers safe.