Cleaning Pandemic Opportunity

Most governments would mandate below to corporate offices/places of business which are opening-up

COVID-19 spreads through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. A person can acquire the virus by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose or eyes.

A key way you can protect workers and others from the risk of exposure to COVID-19 is by implementing appropriate cleaning and disinfecting measures for your workplace.

A combination of cleaning and disinfection will be most effective in removing the COVID-19 virus.

Until a vaccine is produced deep cleaning will be a norm.

So what’s required to clean and disinfect these large corporate offices?

EPA’s website has a list of cleaning products that can be used and there are more than ~420 of them. On closer examination, one would find that Quaternary Ammonium is the most commonly used compound for general cleaning and disinfecting

Quaternary Ammonium Compound is widely used as disinfectant and antimicrobial agent which works by disrupting the cell membrane of bacteria. It is formulated by the alkylation of tertiary amines with a halocarbon. This compound is positively charged polyatomic ion having an alkyl or aryl group. It also finds its application as phase transfer catalyst that accelerates the reaction between liquid & immiscible solvent and aids in production of highly reactive dichlorocarbene.

The other common compounds in the list are

Compounds

Count of EPA Registration Number

Quaternary ammonium

97

Sodium hypochlorite

39

Hydrogen peroxide

33

I wanted to check if there is globally any major company controlling the supply of this compound. The answer is no and some googling will list thousands of suppliers. China leads the export controlling 1/4 of the market

If we cant play on the supply side then can we play on the distributor or maker side?

While the compound is very common few companies dominate the market and have a huge distribution network. On analysis of ~400 products allowed list, these are the top ones

Company

Products

Listed

Country

Symbol

Lonza LLC

33

Yes

Switzerland

SWX: LONN

The Clorox Company

37

Yes

USA

NYSE: CLX

Stepan Company

18

Yes

USA

NYSE: SCL

Ecolab Inc

16

Yes

USA

NYSE: ECL

Reckitt Benckiser LLC

11

Yes

UK

LON: RB

Diversey Inc

10

No

USA

NA

Steris Corporation

6

Yes

USA

NYSE: STE

Professional Disposables International Inc

6

No

USA

NA

Many of them have a habitual use in general day to day use in office cleaning environments and I expect sales of almost all of them to improve in coming quarters

So if you want to play the Pandemic cleaning opportunity then go for these companies which have branded products and established distribution network