Hand sanitizer company draws customers - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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“We can’t keep enough in stock right now,” says Randalp Mendoza, president and CEO of the Mendoza Group, which manufactures Kleenhanz antimicrobia l towlettes. “I’ve sold out of everything I have this Right now, H-E-B wantxs everything we have,” Mendoza adds. Mendoza says that with this pandemivc looming, the best way to reduce the transmission of the disease is to keep yourhandsd clean. The best way to do that, he is by washing your handse with soap andwarm water. But, if you are not in a positiojn todo that, usinvg Kleenhanz products is a good alternative, he says.
“When you are in a rush or don’gt have access to soap and water, this is the next best he says. Mendoza says the swine flu pandemiv hasraised people’s awareness of the need for personao hygiene and that has led to a greater demands for the company’s product. Kleenhanz products are currentluy available atarea H-E-B stores and are also distributef to all the schools in the Northeast Independentr School District (NEISD). Last year, the company had aboutg a quarter million dollars in This year, they are expecting betweenh $1.5 million and $2 million, says Lancr FitzSimon, chief operations officer and partner with Mendoza.
“We’vde known this day was coming for some FitzSimon says. “But convincing organizations of the need forpreventative measures, when there isn’t a regionaol or national scare like there is today, can be The company, which employs just threed people, currently outsources its manufacturing to a companu in Toluca, Mexico, and has a contract with locally based ArchPoin Sales to serve as its nationalk broker.
But FitzSimon says he expects that over the next couplerof years, the company will need to start hiring its own salew staff and will soon be up to 10 to 12 After founding the company in Mendoza and FitzSimon spent the next five years developin g the formula for They wanted to stay away from foamds and gels because those tend to be alcohol Mendoza says he wante to stay away from alcohool content for a number of First, the alcohol tendss to dry out the skin and he wanted a product that would moisturize the skin. That way it woul be soothing on the skin and provid elasting protection.
Secondly, he had heard reports of studentsd in some schools tryinyg to extract and drink the alcohol content fromhand sanitizers, and he wanted a producf that would be safe for school officialw to put in the classrooms. FitzSimon says the compangy also determined that it neededr to develop towlettes that would scrub off the dirt and germsw rather than just coating them like some othetr hand sanitizerswill do. “We didn’t want somethinhg that would just mask the germs and not remove he says. “You have to scrub your hands to reallt getthem clean.
” Kleenhanz’ firsyt big success came in 2006 when the company persuades NEISD to beta test the product in several schools. Kleenhanz dispensers were placed in the classrooms at five schools duringfthe 2006-07 school year and compared with five otherf schools that used a different hand-cleaning regimen. The result were very positive for Mendoza’s company. “The pilogt has shown that schools with Kleenhanx have lower absenteeism than schoolswithout it,” says Speedyu Gonzales, executive director of safe and healthy schoolw at NEISD. “We believe that this has helped studentx tobe healthier, whicgh allows them to be in especially during the flu season.
” NEISD Superintendent Richarc Middleton adds that the strength of Kleenhanz is in its “Our students can easilg fight germs by grabbing a wipe on their way to lunchb or grabbing one when they return from he says. Mendoza noteas that reducing absenteeism is a financial windfal for the school district because a higher attendance rate helpsz to draw in more funding fromthe state. “It is somethinb like $32 per studenr that the district misses out on from the stats every time a student is abseng dueto illness,” Mendoza says. “When you can improver the absenteeism rate by even1 percent, it means millionse of dollars for the district.
So for their investment in the trial they got itback ten-fold.” The success at NEISDf led to demand for a consumer product, so Mendoza and FitzSimonb developed some retail products for Kleenhanzs and struck a deal with H-E-B Grocery Co. Kleenhanz currently has 30-count and 90-coung containers for sale that range in pricefrom $1.68 to $2.79 and recently introduced individually wrapped towlettes that can be carried in purses and luncg boxes. Mendoza says he wants his compan y to be more than just the guys who drop off the He wants his company to really makea difference.
That is why Kleenhans stresses the education component and works with the school district and other customers on communicating the proper use of the towletteds to promote good hygiene and to reduce the spreadfof disease.