Wadi Surgicals to triple capacity to 3 million gloves per day by 2026

Hyderabad, India – Wadi Surgicals, a nitrile gloves manufacturing startup from Hyderabad, which began production of surgical-use gloves in May 2023, plans to scale up capacity at its Visakhapatnam plant ahead of tapping export markets and a rise in demand it anticipates in the domestic market once quality compliance norms and stricter import regulations are in place.

The 160-meter long production line at its plant in the AMTZ Medtech Park is operating to its capacity of 1 million gloves a day and fed raw material sourced from Korea and Thailand. Another line is to be added in November and a third in March 2026. Both additional lines will have a capacity of 1 million gloves a day each, Wadi Surgicals’ founder-directors Shaaz Mehmood and Ishaan Dodhiwala said during a media interaction here on Wednesday.

Anindith Reddy, a member of the promoter family of the Apollo Hospitals Group, is a founder director and Raches Ella of Bharat Biotech is an investor director in the startup focused on gloves made from nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), a synthetic alternative to latex gloves that dominate the market. The company markets the gloves under the ‘Enliva’ brand. Nitrile gloves are preferred by healthcare professionals due to better durability, fit and allergy resistance, they said.

The venture on which ₹50 crore has been invested will require an additional ₹20 crore investment for each of the two proposed manufacturing lines, at the existing 52,000 sq ft plant in Visakhapatnam. Besides ramping up capacity, the plan is to set up a greenfield production facility with at least five lines in North India in 2027 and foray into surgical latex gloves through an acquisition.

Firms in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh will be evaluated for acquisition. A location for the new plant in North India is yet to be finalised. Mr. Mehmood said it will take time before clarity on the required investment emerges.

The bootstrapped startup, which intends to raise funds, wants to build on its first-mover advantage in the nitrile gloves manufacturing space, in the country, when the quality control order of national standards body the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) takes effect from November.

It expects the move to curb imports of substandard gloves. Initially, North Africa, Middle East and CIS countries will be its focus export markets.