Iconic Worldwide has big ambitions with glove manufacturing

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 21): Property developer Iconic Worldwide Bhd has “the ambitious target of becoming one of the world’s top five rubber glove manufacturers” even though there are “doubters and sceptics”.

“We understand that some people may have doubts or remain sceptical about our business diversification into the PPE (personal protective equipment) industry.

“Some investors also have concerns about whether there will be too many new players and glove wannabes, which may lead to overcapacity in the market. But frankly, we are not worried at all,” group managing director and major shareholder Datuk Lucky Tan Kean Tet (pictured) told The Edge Malaysia via a video interview.

He revealed that Iconic Worldwide will spend RM155 million to build the PPE manufacturing facilities on a 5.53-acre land parcel in Batu Kawan, Penang, with plans to produce 3.1 billion to 3.5 billion pieces of gloves and 220 million pieces of face masks every year.

“Although our planned 12 production lines have yet to be completed, the orders that we have received (from Europe and the US) are already more than what we are capable of producing, which is why we plan to further increase our production capacity,” he said.

Tan said Iconic Worldwide’s “ultimate target” is to become the fifth largest glove maker in the world, producing 15 billion to 16 billion pieces of gloves by 2025.

“That’s about five times bigger than our upcoming capacity of 3.1 billion to 3.5 billion pieces. If we could achieve 15 billion to 16 billion pieces, I am pretty sure that we could command a global market share of about 5%.

“I know there are many people out there who may think we are overly optimistic, but to put things into perspective, the global demand is 330 billion pieces of gloves per annum, of which 67% will be produced by Malaysian glove makers.

“Global demand is expected to increase by 10% every year, and with the pandemic factor, we think it could increase by 20% every year,” he explained.

According to The Edge’s report, Iconic Group is “one of the leading property firms in the north of Peninsular Malaysia”. Tan founded and is chairman of the group (privately-owned)

Iconic Group has completed projects with a gross development value (GDV) of about RM600 million, while its ongoing projects have a total GDV of around RM400 million. Some of the projects done by it include Icon City, Iconic Hotel, Iconic Skies and Iconic Vue.

As for the listed Iconic Worldwide, it is undertaking the mixed-development project Iconic Point (GDV of RM139.5 million) in Simpang Ampat, Seberang Perai, Penang.

Iconic Point is a 65:35 joint venture between Iconic Worldwide and Iconic Group.

Read the full report in this week’s The Edge Malaysia

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