At full stretch: Garware Bestretch sees rubber tape sales for masks at ₹100 cr this year

Garware Bestretch, which supplies rubber tapes used in face masks and disposable medical apparel, expects sales to touch ₹100 crore by the end of the year, with strong demand in India and abroad.

Since March, the company has seen a 40 per cent jump in sale of rubber tapes and generated additional income of ₹10 crore.

The Pune-based Garware Bestretch is one of the largest makers of latex and latex-free elastic rubber products.

Rubber tape exports

The demand for face masks has increased after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, not only from doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers but also from the general public.

The company has produced and dispatched over 35 tonnes of rubber tapes in the last 10 days, which has contributed to make 67 lakh face masks and over one tonne of rubber tape to produce over 5 lakh disposable apparel for medical use.

Garware Bestretch makes almost 500 tonnes of rubber tapes per month and exports a major chunk to various mask manufacturers across the world.

In the last 3-4 weeks, about three crore masks have been made and almost 50 per cent of them use Garware Bestretch’s rubber tapes. In the last six weeks GBL has supplied rubber tapes sufficient to make 2 crore masks, said the company.

Apart from in India, the company is also selling it in the US and other countries in Asia and Europe.