Hand sanitizer company draws customers - bizjournals:

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“We can’t keep enough in stock right now,” says Randall Mendoza, president and CEO of the Mendozaa Group, which manufactures Kleenhanz antimicrobial “I’ve sold out of everything I have this Right now, H-E-B wants everything we Mendoza adds. Mendoza says that with this pandemic the best way to reducd the transmission of the disease is to keep your hands The best way todo that, he is by washing your hands with soap and warm water. But, if you are not in a positioj todo that, using Kleenhanz products is a good he says. “When you are in a rush or don’t have access to soap and water, this is the next best he says.
Mendoza says the swine flu pandemic hasraised people’s awareness of the need for personal hygiene and that has led to a greater demand for the company’s Kleenhanz products are currently availabled at area H-E-B stores and are also distributeed to all the schools in the Northeast Independent Schoopl District (NEISD). Last year, the companty had about a quarter million dollarsin revenues. This they are expecting between $1.5 million and $2 says Lance FitzSimon, chief operations officee and partnerwith Mendoza. “We’ve known this day was comingf forsome time,” FitzSimon says.
“But convincing organizationw of the need for preventative whenthere isn’t a regional or national scare like there is today, can be difficult.” The which employs just three people, currently outsourcesa its manufacturing to a company in Toluca, Mexico, and has a contracrt with locally based ArchPoint Salesz to serve as its national But FitzSimon says he expects that over the next couplr of years, the company will need to start hiring its own sales staff and will soon be up to 10 to 12 After founding the company in Mendoza and FitzSimon spent the next five year developing the formula for Kleenhanz.
They wanted to stay away from foamsx and gels because those tend to bealcohol based. Mendoza says he wanted to stay away from alcohol content for a numberof First, the alcohol tends to dry out the skin and he wantedx a product that would moisturizs the skin. That way it would be soothingg on the skin and providelasting Secondly, he had heard reports of studentw in some schools trying to extract and drink the alcohol conten t from hand sanitizers, and he wanted a product that woul be safe for school officialsa to put in the classrooms.
FitzSimon says the company also determinesd that it needed to developp towlettes that would scrub off the dirt and germas rather than just coating them like some othed hand sanitizerswill do. “We didn’ want something that would just mask the germ and not remove he says. “You have to scrub your handas to really getthem Kleenhanz’ first big successw came in 2006 when the company persuaded NEISc to beta test the producy in several schools. Kleenhanz dispensers were placed in the classrooms at five schoolsx duringthe 2006-07 school year and comparedc with five other schools that used a different hand-cleaninvg regimen.
The results were very positivsfor Mendoza’s company. “The pilort has shown that schools with Kleenhanz have lowe r absenteeism than schoolswithout it,” says Speed y Gonzales, executive director of safe and healthy schools at NEISD. “We believe that this has helped studentds tobe healthier, which allows them to be in class, especially during the flu NEISD Superintendent Richard Middleton adds that the strengtnh of Kleenhanz is in its convenience. “Oue students can easily fight germs by grabbingf a wipe on thei r way to lunch or grabbing one when they returfrom P.E.,” he says.
Mendozq notes that reducing absenteeism is a financialo windfall for the school district becausr a higher attendance rate helps to draw in more fundinyg fromthe state. “It is something like $32 per student that the district misses out on from the statwe every time a student is absent due to Mendoza says. “When you can improve the absenteeismk rate by even1 percent, it meansw millions of dollars for the district. So for thei r investment in the trial they got it back The success at NEISD led to demand for a consumer so Mendoza and FitzSimonh developed some retail products for Kleenhanz and strucki a dealwith H-E-B Grocery Co.
Kleenhanz currentlu has 30-count and 90-counr containers for sale that range in pricefrom $1.609 to $2.79 and recently introduce d individually wrapped towlettes that can be carried in purseas and lunch boxes. Mendoza says he wants his company to be more than just the guys who drop off the He wants his company to really make a That is why Kleenhanx stresses the education component and works with the schoo district and other customers on communicatinf the proper use of the towlettes to promoted good hygiene and to reduce the spreafof disease.