Mumbai-based absorbent hygiene company Nobel Hygiene is one of the fastest growing consumer goods companies in India. The company has been selling adult and baby diapers since the year 2000, and began its own manufacturing operations in 2010.

Kamal Johari, managing director, Nobel Hygiene Pvt. Ltd., decided to enter the absorbent hygiene market nearly two decades ago because of the very low penetration rate of hygiene products in the country. Considering itself as a pioneer in the Indian adult diaper market, Nobel has achieved growing success since its launch.

“[In India], Friends has been the No. 1 adult diaper brand for the last 17 years and we control 65% market share (as per Euromonitor),” Johari says. “Our baby diapers brand Teddyy is the largest Indian brand and fourth brand nationally by market share.”

Nobel Hygiene’s manufacturing facility, which is based 180 km north of Mumbai in Nashik, houses seven converting lines. In addition to adult diapers and baby diapers, the company produces its own underpads, and added a line of baby pants style diapers in 2017. A third baby pants line—its eighth converting line—is expected to come onstream in May.

While Nobel is up against some tough competition in the baby diaper market—from large corporations Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Unicharm—India is witnessing robust growth in the absorbent hygiene market, and Johari is optimistic about the future of his business.

“In eight years of starting manufacturing, we have installed eight manufacturing lines,” he says. “In the future I would like to maintain the same [growth] and remain the biggest domestic Indian manufacturer.”