Three Hyderabad entrepreneurs are redefining the Nitrile glove industry
Hyderabad: Three childhood friends from Hyderabad have turned their shared vision into a thriving global enterprise specializing in glove production. What started as a small venture has now expanded across international markets, setting new standards in the industry.
With the Covid-19 pandemic driving up the demand for both medical and non-medical latex-free nitrile gloves, Konda Anindith Reddy, Shaaz Mehmood and Ishaan Dodhiwala identified a business opportunity and found Enliva with the support from Raches Ella and Viswajith Reddy. Their enterprise is the first and largest manufacturer of nitrile gloves in India.
These friends started Enliva in 2020 and set up their first production unit at Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone (AMTZ) in Visakhapatnam. The facility currently produces 1 million gloves daily and nearly 300 million every year. The founders of Enliva are on track to scale it up to 3 billion gloves annually in the next five years. The increase in output production has generated employment opportunities for 2,000 skilled and unskilled labourers.
Even though Thailand is the world’s largest producer of natural rubber, Malaysia and China are the top players in the global glove supply chain. As per reports, India imports around Rs. 60 crore worth of gloves every month.
As the usage of gloves is expanding across sectors including the healthcare industry, the global value market, valued at USD 16 billion in 2023, is on the path to reach the USD 28 billion dollar mark by 2030.
Currently, India’s glove market accounts for approximately 5 percent of the global market size and it is projected to touch USD 1.2 billion by 2028 due to the growing industrial use of gloves and increasing hygiene awareness among the people after the pandemic.
According to Shaaz Mehmood, Enliva co-founder, the demand for gloves in India is being fulfilled by the foreign markets and 75-80 percent of the gloves are being imported. He claimed that most of these imported gloves are substandard. He further said that the local production capabilities could be boosted by taking care of the regulatory gaps.
Many of the 20-25 latex glove manufacturing units are located in Kerala but the country has very few nitrile glove manufacturers. These manufacturing units primarily cater to the needs of surgeons while the demand for examination gloves is on the higher side. Meanwhile, the Enliva team said they are committed to reaching the goal of Viksit Bharat and plan to establish India as a global manufacturing hub for gloves.
