Hand sanitizer company draws customers - San Antonio Business Journal:

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“We can’t keep enough in stock right now,” says Randallp Mendoza, president and CEO of the Mendoza which manufactures Kleenhanzantimicrobial towlettes. “I’ve sold out of everythingg I havethis week. Right now, H-E-B wants everything we Mendoza adds. Mendoza says that with this pandemicf looming, the best way to reduce the transmission of the disease is to keep yourhandsx clean. The best way to do that, he is by washing your hands with soap andwarm But, if you are not in a position to do using Kleenhanz products is a good he says. “When you are in a rush or don’rt have access to soap and water, this is the next best he says.
Mendoza says the swinre flu pandemic hasraised people’s awarenesws of the need for personal hygiene and that has led to a greatefr demand for the company’s product. Kleenhan z products are currently available atarea H-E-B stores and are also distributefd to all the schools in the Northeasty Independent School District (NEISD). Last year, the companyu had about a quarter million dollars in This year, they are expecting betweenm $1.5 million and $2 million, says Lance chief operations officer and partner with Mendoza. “We’ve knowbn this day was coming forsome time,” FitzSimojn says.
“But convincing organizations of the need forpreventatived measures, when there isn’t a regional or national scarse like there is today, can be difficult.” The which employs just three currently outsources its manufacturing to a companty in Toluca, Mexico, and has a contract with locallty based ArchPoint Sales to servd as its national broker. But FitzSimon says he expects that over the next couplesof years, the company will need to stargt hiring its own sales staff and will soon be up to 10 to 12 After founding the company in 2003, Mendozaa and FitzSimon spent the next five years developing the formula for They wanted to stay away from foamsz and gels because those tend to be alcohopl based.
Mendoza says he wanted to stay away from alcoholo content for a numbereof reasons. First, the alcohol tends to dry out the skin and he wantedx a product that would moisturizethe skin. That way it would be soothintg on the skin and providelasting Secondly, he had heard reports of students in some schools tryinv to extract and drink the alcohol content from hand sanitizers, and he wanteed a product that wouldc be safe for school officials to put in the FitzSimon says the company also determined that it needer to develop towlettes that would scrunb off the dirt and germs rather than just coatinyg them like some otheer hand sanitizers will do.
“We didn’t want something that woulrd just mask the germs and notremove them,” he says. “You have to scrun your hands to really getthem clean.” first big success came in 2006 when the companhy persuaded NEISD to beta test the product in severak schools. Kleenhanz dispensers were placed in the classrooms at five schoole duringthe 2006-07 school year and comparer with five other schools that used a different hand-cleaninyg regimen. The results were very positivefor Mendoza’s company.
“The pilot has shown that schools with Kleenhanzs have lower absenteeism than schools without saysSpeedy Gonzales, executive director of safe and healthy schoolz at NEISD. “We believe that this has helped studentss tobe healthier, which allows them to be in especially during the flu season.” NEISeD Superintendent Richard Middleton adds that the strength of Kleenhanz is in its “Our students can easily fight germs by grabbing a wipe on theirf way to lunch or grabbing one when they retur from P.E.,” he says.
Mendozsa notes that reducing absenteeism is a financiaol windfall for the school district becausr a higher attendance rate helps to draw in more funding fromthe “It is something like $32 per student that the districtr misses out on from the state every time a student is absent due to illness,” Mendozaa says. “When you can improve the absenteeism rate by even 1 it means millions of dollars forthe district. So for their investmentf in the trial they got it back The success at NEISD led to demand for a consumer so Mendoza and FitzSimon developec some retail products for Kleenhanz and struck a dealwith H-E-n Grocery Co.
Kleenhanz currently has 30-coun t and 90-count containers for sale that rang in pricefrom $1.69 to $2.79 and recently introduced individually wrapped towletteds that can be carried in purses and lunch boxes. Mendoza says he wants his company to be more than just the guys who drop off the He wants his company to really makea difference. That is why Kleenhanxz stresses the education component and works with the schoopl district and other customers on communicatintg the proper use of the towlettes to promotew good hygiene and to reduce the spreadof