South Africa’s home-grown diaper manufacturer, L’il Masters Diapers, which is making its mark in the highly competitive absorbent hygiene market in Southern Africa, is now doubling its factory size at Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone north of Durban.
Over the past three years this South African-owned company has garnered between 30% and 50% of the South African diaper market, and it anticipates further annual growth of 15% to 20% - not only in South Africa but also in Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho and Madagascar, with plans to expand into Nigeria and Malawi.
With an eye on penetrating the KwaZulu-Natal diaper market, the Gauteng-based company opened a 3000-square-metre factory at Dube TradeZone 1 in 2019. The factory runs one diaper line, complementing its two factories in Johannesburg and Vereeniging.
Business development manager Nilesh Hargovan said the firm now planned to move to bigger factory premises in Dube TradeZone 2, more than doubling its size to 7 000sqm and adding two more baby diaper lines. Construction of the new factory is expected to start in June/July and be completed at the end of 2022.
The company recently acquired Infinity Care, a manufacturer of adult nappies, expanding its production and product range to seven baby diaper lines, one adult diaper line, one baby pants line, one sanitary pads line, and three wet wipes lines. The latest expansion will increase production by 10 million diapers a month at Dube TradePort.
Based on its capability, dedication to quality and efficiency, and its rapid expansion, the firm has managed to access the chain store market with the L’il Masters Diapers brand. It has also carved a niche in the private label market.
Hargovan said it had chosen Dube TradePort over other Durban locations for the benefits provided by the SEZ. These include convenient positioning close to the Durban harbour, and good road transport access that shortens the import-export supply chain to drive cost efficiency. He said this strategy had already paid off, with the Dube TradeZone 1 factory reporting year-on-year export growth of 15% to 20%.
The business started in 2002 as a baby accessories manufacturer. However, the owners soon discovered that there were many frustrated parents battling to find the balance between affordability and quality of leading brands on the shelves.
The company conducted scientific research to develop a diaper that was perfect in terms of its structure and components.
It currently employs 350 people in Gauteng and 30 in Durban and anticipates increasing its Durban staff to 100 with the expansion to the Dube TradeZone 2 factory.
The majority of components for the products are imported, however Hargovan said the firm was open to localisation if a supplier could match input quality at a better cost.
