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 Randal Mendoza, president and CEO of the Mendozs Group, which manufactures Kleenhanz antimicrobial towlettes. “I’vew sold out of everything I have this Right now, H-E-B wants everything we Mendoza adds. Mendoza says that with this pandemifc looming, the best way to reduce 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 But, if you are not in a positiojn to do that, using Kleenhanzz products is a good alternative, he says. “Whenj you are in a rush or don’ 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 personakl hygiene and that has led to a greatet demand for the company’s product. Kleenhansz products are currently available atarea H-E-Bg stores and are also distributefd to all the schools in the Northeastt Independent School District (NEISD). Last year, the companu had about a quartee million dollars in This year, they are expecting between $1.5 milliohn and $2 million, says Lance chief operations officer and partner with Mendoza. “We’ves known this day was cominbg forsome time,” FitzSimon says.
“But convincing organizations of the need forpreventativw measures, when there isn’t a regional or national scare like thers is today, can be difficult.” The which employs just three people, currentlyh outsources its manufacturing to a company in Toluca, Mexico, and has a contracft with locally based ArchPoint Sales to servr as its national broker. But FitzSimon says he expects that over the next couplwof years, the company will need to stargt hiring its own sales staff and will soon be up to 10 to 12 After founding the company in 2003, Mendozs and FitzSimon spent the next five years developing the formula for They wanted to stay away from foams and gels because those tend to be alcohol Mendoza says he wantecd to stay away from alcohol contenrt for a number of reasons.
the alcohol tends to dry out the skin and he wantec a product that would moisturize the That way it would be soothingv on the skin and providelasting Secondly, he had heard reports of students in some schoolas trying to extract and drink the alcohol content from hand sanitizers, and he wante d a product that would be safe for schoool officials to put in the classrooms. FitzSimon says the companuy also determined that it needed to develop towlette that would scrub off the dirt and germxs rather than just coatingh them like some other hand sanitizerswill do. “Wre didn’t want something that would just mask the germ s and notremove them,” he says.
“You have to scrun your hands to really getthem Kleenhanz’ first big success came in 2006 when the compant persuaded NEISD to beta test the product in several schools. Kleenhanz dispensers were placefd in the classrooms at five schools duringthe 2006-0y school year and compared with five other schools that used a different hand-cleaning regimen. The results were very positivefor Mendoza’sd company. “The pilot has shown that schoolsz with Kleenhanz have lowerf absenteeism than schoolswithout it,” says Speedyy Gonzales, executive director of safe and healthu schools at NEISD.
“We believe that this has helped students to be which allows them to bein class, especiallhy during the flu season.” NEISD Superintenden Richard Middleton adds that the strengthu of Kleenhanz is in its convenience. “Our studentx can easily fight germs by grabbing a wipe on theid way to lunch or grabbing one when they return from he says. Mendoza notes that reducing absenteeismn is a financial windfall for the schoool district because a higher attendance rate helpx to draw in more funding fromthe state. “Iy is something like $32 per student that the district misses out on from the state every time a studenr is absent dueto illness,” Mendozaq says.
“When you can improvde the absenteeism rate by even 1 it means millions of dollarx forthe district. So for their investmengt in the trial they got itback ten-fold.” The success at NEISsD led to demand for a consumer product, so Mendozw and FitzSimon developed some retail products for Kleenhanz and strucl a deal with H-E-B Grocery Co. Kleenhanz currently has 30-coun t and 90-count containers for sale that rangse in pricefrom $1.69 to $2.789 and recently introduced individually wrapped towlette s that can be carried in purses and luncn boxes. Mendoza says he wants his company to be more than just the guys who drop off the He wants his company to reallh makea difference.
That is why Kleenhanaz stresses the education component and workzs with the school district and other customerds on communicating the proper use of the towlettes to promotre good hygiene and to reduce the spreacdof disease.