Hygiene group refocused to meet growing demand

During a time when the multiple facets of hygiene has become tremendously prominent in the fight against a deadly pandemic, it is appropriate to take a closer look at a leading company that plays a frontline role in the supply of cleaning and hygiene products to the African market. In this company profile Hyvest Group CEO Kevin Clarke offers a current overview of the Hyvest Group that present diverse and tailored solutions to add value for customers.

The Hyvest Group of companies is best described as a support supply business to the African hygiene, cleaning, hospitality, healthcare and industrial markets. The group offers diverse manufacturing capabilities in hygiene dispensing systems, liquid and powder chemical blending, a variety of aerosol offerings along with an away-from-home paper converting business and distributes its comprehensive basket of products across the African continent.

The history of the group stems from 2005 with the greenfield start-up of its first business Hygiene Systems (HS) that focused on the wholesale supply of washroom dispensing systems and their allied soap, sanitiser and aerosol consumables in support of the washroom service providing industry. Over the last 16 years, Hygiene Systems has introduced many of the programmable dispenser technologies that have shaped the African hygiene industry. Today HS offers customers a choice of several different matching dispensing ranges and consumables that it has developed and manufactured to suit the African hygiene market conditions, as well as bespoke and exclusive product ranges that are designed and manufactured to specific customer requirements.

By 2014, consumable sales volumes had created the need to vertically integrate the supply chain in soap, sanitiser and hand soaps, which led to the acquisition of SMP - Specialised Maintenance Products, a Gauteng based chemical and aerosol blending company with a long history in chemical and aerosol production capabilities. SMP had two operating divisions, one which focused on providing product development and private label chemical and aerosol products to wholesalers and resellers and a second division that focused on the industrial channel in the mining, transport and engineering sectors with its own tried and tested range of specialised lubricants, additives and cleaning chemicals.

The next step in the evolution of the group was to integrate the away-from-home paper supply chain and, after two unsuccessful years of searching for a suitable acquisition in the paper converting space, it was decided to start a paper converting business and in 2015 The Paper Connection (TPC) was born. Today TPC has the capability of converting a complete range of 1- and 2-ply toilet tissue and hand towel roll and folded products that can be private labelled and are widely distributed to numerous away-from-home markets.

The ability to convert a complete basket of away-from-home paper products and hand hygiene formulations, attracted the interest of several larger healthcare groups who were actively looking for alternative supply solutions, and a decision was taken to start a business that focused on hand hygiene solutions to the healthcare industry and the company Hymed was formed to grow the group’s paper volumes into the healthcare sector.

A strategic decision to refocus the group’s business-to-business aspirations on three specific industry sectors where future African growth opportunities are perceived to be, namely mining, healthcare and hospitality led to the acquisition of Fresh iD, a KZN-based hospitality hygiene business focused predominantly on the provision of professional hygiene chemicals and dosing systems and cleaning solutions to the hospitality and food services sectors.

Fresh iD which has been rebranded as Fresh, has entered into an exclusive partnership with both Christeyns, a world leader in low-impact laundry chemistry, and Otek, a world leader in Ozone laundry technology providing state-of-the-art, low environmental impact and cost-saving solutions to the textile laundering industry. The Christeyns laundry chemical range will be manufactured locally under license by SMP. With this three-way partnership, Fresh is poised to become an industry leader in this sector.

The group offers diverse manufacturing capabilities in hygiene dispensing systems, liquid and powder chemical blending, a variety of aerosol offerings along with an away-from-home paper converting business and distributes its comprehensive basket of products across the African continent.

In 2020, The Hyvest Group restructured its business into three divisions, comprising of six separate brands that are focused on their specific core competencies.

The Manufacturing Division houses the brands of Specialised Maintenance Products and The Paper Connection that not only manufacture the downstream sales division’s chemical, aerosol and paper requirements, but also manage certain direct supply relationships with larger reseller customers that require bespoke product development and private label branding.

The Distributor & Reseller Division of Hygiene Systems focuses on supplying a complete basket of dispensing systems, consumable and paper products to distributors and reseller customers both within the borders of South Africa as well as to export customers in 18 African countries. A focus on the development of partnerships within the retail sector has produced encouraging results for the betasan hand and surface sanitiser range.

The Business-to-Business division is comprised of Hymed, focused on the Healthcare industry; Fresh focused on the hospitality food services and industrial laundry sector; and SMP Industrial Supplies focused on the mining, transport and engineering sectors. All three businesses offer a comprehensive range of products manufactured by SMP & TPC alongside bespoke ranges of outsourced janitorial and PPE products.

The group’s extensive national manufacturing, warehouse and distribution footprint comprising seven separate locations with more than 15 000 m2 under roof, ensures that the needs of the group’s customers are met by staying at the forefront of new technologies pertaining to formulations, industry-related technologies, manufacturing methods and group logistical solutions. The 30 years of industry experience enables The Hyvest Group to tailor solutions and add value for their customers at every stage of their supply chain.

Various discussions with existing customers have indicated that there has been nothing but approval for the strategy and market approach, and with more strategic acquisitions planned for the future, Hyvest customers can look forward to an even more comprehensive product basket to create a truly onestop cleaning and hygiene supply shop.

For more information about The Hyvest Group visit: www.hyvest.co.za