Kimberly-Clark Professional Boosts Manufacturing to Meet Increasing Demand for Hand Hygiene Products

Kimberly-Clark Professional has undertaken a series of improvements and investments in its San Antonio, Texas, facility to meet the growing global demand for its skin care products and other hygiene offerings.

The upgrades have enabled the facility to increase production of its Kleenex brand instant hand sanitizers, foam, lotion and other skin cleansers as well as a new surface disinfecting product that was launched in the U.S. in July.

"As people have become more aware of the important role that hand hygiene products play in preventing the spread of infections, such as H1N1 and other strains of influenza, we have responded by accelerating our investments in our San Antonio facility," said Josh Renihan, North American skin care business leader for Kimberly-Clark Professional. "Global demand for our skin care products is expected to increase in the coming years. We are making these investments to meet customer needs today as well as tomorrow."

The improvements to the San Antonio Skin Care facility include investments in the plants infrastructure; capital investments in equipment and manufacturing processes; increasing the capability of the plants bottle lines; and sustainability best practices, including improving ventilation systems to reduce emissions from manufacturing processes.

"These and other ongoing improvements will ensure that we have the ability to meet higher demand levels for instant hand sanitizers as well as our other skin care products now and in the future," said Byron Prosser, operations team leader for the San Antonio Skin Care Facility.

The Kimberly-Clark Professional Skin Care Facility in San Antonio was built in 1977 and currently employs 130 people. The facility produces a full line of skin care products for commercial, institutional and industrial use.