In April, nonwovens producer Suominen Corporation announced it had hired Jon Arendt as its new product manager for baby care and household wiping. Arendt came to the company with nearly 20 years of experience in consumer goods including medical devices and hygiene products, and has more than 30 U.S. and global patents and/or applications filed in areas such as nonwovens, household cleaning, personal hygiene, and formulations.
 
Arendt was most recently the director of innovation for nonwovens at Nice-Pak and has also held positions at NPS Corporation and Kimberly-Clark. At Suominen, he will undertake a global product management responsibility for household and baby care wiping, working closely with the sales, product management and product development in the company’s Convenience business area.
 
Nonwovens Industry recently caught up with Arendt to discuss his new role and the latest in baby and household wipes.
 
Nonwovens Industry (NWI): What are the key responsibilities as a product manager of baby and household wiping at Suominen?
 
Jon Arendt (JA): Key responsibilities include leveraging internal and external insights to understand the consumer markets. We then use these insights to build strategic programs that are prioritized to deliver near term and long-term value added improvements for our customers. Product managers also serve as the “end user” experts within the organization by collaborating closely with sales, marketing, R&D, as well as external partners. We also understand and translate micro and macro industry and economic trends into insights for the organization.
 
NWI: How have your experiences at Nice-Pak, NPS Corp., and Kimberly-Clark prepared you for this role?
 
JA: In totality, my work experiences have given me a very broad business and R&D perspective to leverage when considering how to drive business results for the company. At the end of the day, markets vary substantially globally; therefore, how we apply “innovation” on various global markets will vary accordingly. My experiences have given me ample opportunities to experience these businesses and R&D variations first hand, therefore, improving my ability to make effective and decisive business decisions.
 

NWI: What is the latest from your company in baby and household wiping technology?
 
JA: The organization is looking forward to the state-of-the-art wetlaid production line that will be installed in Bethune, SC. The investment will allow us to continue to produce advantaged nonwoven materials for our customers now and years to come in the areas of household, flushable, and industrial categories.
 
NWI: What are the trends in baby and household? Are customers looking for special features/characteristics?
 
JA: In the baby markets there are certainly trends leaning toward more environmental friendly and sustainable formats, while in the household market there will continue to be a premium on delivering higher performing products while improving the convenience to the consumer. Both of these are largely driven by the nonwoven materials we supply our customers.
 
Simply put, yes, many of our customers are looking for special features driven by their particular customer or consumer’s need. Going back to a previous question, this really is the role of the product manager; to anticipate these needs well in advance and have the innovation already in the pipeline so we can more quickly deliver against our customer needs when called upon.
 
NWI: Which wipes categories have the most potential for innovation and what is driving this innovation?
 
JA: Generally speaking, you tend to see more innovation in categories with a healthy growth outlook. This creates investments in areas such as equipment, people, marketing, etc. From here you have the ingredients for innovation and then it’s a matter of how you put them together in a comprehensive long-term streategy. A major factor that played into my decision to come to Suominen Corporation was the fact that they are poised to create extraordinary innovation. We are investing into a new wetlaid line to support the growing demand in household, industrial, and flushable categories, as well as investing in our current employees and bringing in high caliber talent to support anticipated growth in the wipes Industry.