Midas Safety : The success journey through innovation
Q. Midas Safety is today India’s leading Personal Protective Equipment Manufacturing enterprise and one of the leading hand protection manufacturing companies in the World. Tell us something about your awesome journey so far.
We are one of the largest private label manufacturers of gloves in the world. Midas started its journey in 1977 to manufacturing knitted gloves in Canada. Midas expanded and diversified into making cut & sewn gloves in Sri Lanka and later ventured into polymer dipping of gloves with PVC, Latex, Nitrile and PU over time. In the early 90s, Midas established its distribution division in Dubai focused on ‘Head to Toe’ personal protection and offering a one stop PPE solution to the customers. Midas serves customers in over 50 countries across the world.
Q. How is Midas positioning itself in the Indian Fire & Safety market?
In India, we have diversified into cotton, high performance knitted and dotted gloves, masks and helmet production. For other safety products we have established relationships with reputed global suppliers who produce at international standards. Midas spares no efforts to be a one stop solution for Head to Toe PPE requirements to its customers.
The Indian market is unique and at a nascent stage in PPE adoption. It has a mix of customers from – the well informed to the not so aware. Multinationals with manufacturing bases in India, are bringing in the best global practices in safety and demanding PPE of international standards in their own plants. They are also enforcing these standards on to their vendors. Many medium and small manufacturing enterprises, are also initating basic PPE; to improve employee welfare and safety at the least possible cost.
The Indian government is on a reformative drive to bring positive changes to labour laws and is working out enforcement and compliance mechanisms, to ensure labour welfare. In my opinion, we have many exciting years ahead and the journey will be enriching for both, Midas and the industry.
We at Midas believe that Safety is for all, no matter how small or big. For the diverse requirements of the Indian market, we have product offerings from basic to extremely specialized usage and these are made available with the best in class comfort and performance.
Q. What is your new launch about? How it is different from existing product ranges.
We have reorganized our existing product offerings, addressed portfolio gaps and have launched 3 brands – NINJA, TECHTION & VALPRO. NINJA is our international offering of Hand Protection already servicing safety needs across high compliance driven regions of North America, Europe, Australia and Latin America.
TECHTION and VALPRO are Midas Head to Toe PPE offerings, which have gained massive popularity within the Middle East and other emerging markets of the world
Q. Please tell us how you and your company go about spreading awareness about safety wear among both your clients and people at large who need to know? Is mere advertising enough?
While advertising does play an important role to create awareness around safety, it’s not always enough. As a responsible safety solutions provider, Midas encourages active engagement from its teams with customers and end-users. During these customer engagements, we at Midas learn of some real safety needs and get an opportunity to educate how our brands can provide great solutions that address their risks with relevance. Awareness also comes from using and experiencing our safety brands. This is facilitated through product demos and display sessions at end-users, interactions during safety week and product trials etc.
Our brand strategy is aligned to address the diverse requirements of the Indian market and every customer will find a safety solution, matching their needs.
Q. What is the competition you face today in your business?
The Indian market is still at the early stage of PPE usage and is expected to grow as awareness for safety increases. There are already established local and international manufacturers serving the Indian market. However, there is room for everybody and given the diverse segment and nature of the Indian market, there are numerous choices.
Midas will always uphold its global reputation of being a responsible, trusted and innovative provider of PPE solutions.
Q. What are the challenges faced by Midas in India & how are you going to out beat those challenges?
I touched upon this earlier and one of the principal agendas for our brands Ninja, Techtion & Valpro will be, to create adequate awareness around safety–with actual users and employers
This calls for a paradigm shift in thinking – “Return on Investment in PPE” versus “Reduced PPE Expenses”. Midas believes no short-cuts and consider in this to be the only way to garner long term growth for the industry and its brand offerings.
Q. What are the Future Plans of Midas for Indian and the Global market?
“Make in India” and “Make for India” … is the mantra.
We have recently doubled our factory’s capacity at our Coimbatore plant and are fueling additional investments behind masks and helmets. Given the PPE potential, Midas is committed to significant manufacturing and R&D investments for India.
