Ansell

Ansell Limited

Company type	Public
Traded as	ASX: ANN
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	1893; 131 years ago (1893) (as Dunlop Perdriau Ltd.)
Founder	Eric Norman Ansell
Headquarters	Melbourne , Australia
Key people	Neil Salmon (CEO) Zubair Javeed (CFO)
Products	Latex gloves, Personal protective equipment
Revenue	US$2.027 billion (2021)
Net income	US$246.7 million (2021)

Ansell Limited is an Australian company which makes gloves and other personal protection equipment, primarily from latex and rubber. The products are designed for healthcare professionals, industrial workers, and end consumers.

Ansell's history began in 1893 with the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company of Australasia being listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.^[1] Eric Norman Ansell, later to found Ansell, worked at the company as a mechanic then, in 1905, he left to set up his own business manufacturing condoms.^[2]

Between 1905 and 1929, Eric Ansell dedicated himself to broadening his rubber manufacturing experience, producing new types of products such as balloons and household gloves.^[2][3] Finally in 1929, his company was registered as E.N. Ansell & Sons Pty Ltd. In 1934, the company's name was changed to The Ansell Rubber Company Pty Ltd.^[2] More than thirty years later, in 1965, Ansell introduced its first disposable surgical gloves under the Gammex brand. Innovative for their time, the gloves were sterilized using gamma radiation and then packaged so they were ready-to-wear.^[3]

In 1906, Dunlop was renamed to Dunlop Rubber Company of Australasia. In 1929, it merged with the Perdriau Rubber Company, a manufacturer of general rubber products based in Sydney, forming Dunlop Perdriau. The new company focused primarily on the production of automobile tyres and later expanded into other rubber products. In 1967, the company changed its name to Dunlop Australia,^[1] and in 1969 it acquired Ansell.^[2]

In 1980, Dunlop Australia merged with diversified industrial company BTR Nylex to form Dunlop Olympic. This merger aimed to expand the company's product range and market presence beyond rubber products to various industrial and consumer goods. In 1986, Dunlop Olympic changed its name to Pacific Dunlop Limited.^[4]

During the late 1980s and 1990s, Pacific Dunlop continued to expand and diversify its operations. In 1996, Pacific Dunlop announced a strategic initiative to focus on core businesses, and a divestment program to sell off non-core assets.^[5] In 2001, Pacific Dunlop divested its healthcare safety division, which included Ansell. This divestment allowed Ansell to establish itself as a stand-alone company with global expertise in manufacturing and marketing gloves and protective equipment.^[1] Since this point, Ansell has grown organically and through acquisition.

Acquisitions between 2000 and 2024 have been focussed on several industries:

• Protective gloves:
  • Marigold Industrial (UK), known for industrial gloves.
  • Hawkeye Glove Manufacturing, enhancing Ansell's position in the protective gloves market.
  • VibraGuard, a manufacturer of gloves for vibration protection.
  • Comasec, a European-based company specializing in protective gloves.^[6]
  • BarrierSafe Solutions International, a leading North American provider of disposable gloves.^[7]
  • Hands International, a Sri Lankan glove manufacturer.^[8]
  • Hercules Equipments Ltd., enhancing their portfolio in industrial safety gloves.^[9]
  • Nitritex, a UK-based supplier of cleanroom gloves.
  • Primus Gloves, furthering their presence in the Indian market.
• Protective clothing:
  • Trelleborg Protective Products, known for chemical protective clothing.^[10]
  • Microgard, a UK-based manufacturer of chemical protective clothing.
  • Kimberly-Clark's Personal Protection Equipment business.^[11] 
• Medical protection:
  • Sandel Medical Industries, expanding Ansell's range of medical safety products.^[12]

In 2017, Ansell sold its sexual wellness business to Chinese companies Humanwell Healthcare and CITIC Capital in a move to divest non-core business and increase focus on safety solutions and personal protection equipment (PPE) products and services.^[13][14]