바이오스펙테이터

by Jongwon Jang

G&E Biotech has been known in the market with its brand, “Hannahpad”, the cotton sanitary napkin. With the recent listing on KONEX, the company moves toward overseas markets.

The start-up of G&E Biotech was initiated by the unmet needs in the market. In the current market of female sanitary napkins, most of which are disposable ones, the company found a niche for the commercialization of a new type of sanitary napkin.

President Jang Yeong-min commented, “… we have found the potential of the new product, since the product is essentially that of a consumable by its nature, and has been insensitive to economic fluctuation. In addition, no companies have previously focused on the brand of cotton sanitary napkin to be supplied for the scale of its market.

On entering the 2010s, safety issues associated with the products of disposable sanitary napkin were raised. Accordingly, consumers became interested in reusable cotton products of sanitary napkin, and this resulted in the increase of sales of G&E Biotech. Social concern over environmental friendliness propagated with the movement of refraining from the use of disposable products also helped G&E Biotech to find business opportunities.

President Jang emphasized, “… the results obtained from questionnaires distributed to over 5,000 consumers revealed approximately 98 % of entire respondents were willing to reuse cotton sanitary napkins. Thus the market for the cotton sanitary napkin is expected to have sufficient potential to grow with the increasing experiences of the use of cotton products by consumers who could also propagate their positive recognition of the product…”

G&E Biotech started to provide the market with objective data describing the excellence of the cotton sanitary napkin. Consumers who used the cotton sanitary napkin have expressed their positive experiences as, “... the menstrual pains have reduced…”, or “... I feel odors that disappeared…”, etc. These were subjective experiences, and the positive results of the use of cotton sanitary napkin had to be supported by objective data. President Jang commented, “… we are planning for the presentation of the excellence of cotton sanitary napkin, the Hannahpad, through clinical trials that are comparable to those employed for the approval of medical equipment.”

G&E Biotech also works for the overseas market. The company saw overseas markets for the reusable cotton sanitary napkin, for which there are few overseas suppliers concentrating on such reusable product for these overseas markets, taking serious views on the environmental friendliness of products. The company has been participating in the “Lifestyle Expo” held in Tokyo, Japan, for three consecutive years as a means of developing overseas markets. The product is being exported to Japan, Australia, and France; the target market for the export will be extended to other countries. Currently, the company is working for the foundation of a Vietnamese corporation. President Jang emphasized, “… there are no major foreign suppliers of cotton sanitary napkin in the world, and most cotton sanitary napkin products are made by suppliers of domestic handicraft… we will be working to get our Hannahpad propagated in the world to become a leading global brand.”