I will
not say who asked me this question, though it did make me a little
angry. I want to answer it with due respect not only to the one
who asked it but also to all my colleagues working in the disposables
industry. I do not believe I am giving away our "jealously
guarded" secrets. Believe me, this website is just the very tip of
the iceberg. Making diapers is much more than a little
history, a production description and a few test methods. I
believe it is much better to inform the public properly than having
dozens of new competitors, who thought that making diapers was an easy
adventure, ending up loosing their money and messing up our markets.
There is nothing worse than an uneducated competitor. Look at what
has happened recently in Brazil during the 90's, where the birth of
literally 100's of new players damaged the market so much that
nobody was making money anymore. Fortunately things are much better in
Brazil now. Similar things happened
in Argentina. Normalcy may come faster in Brazil if the
government provides proper tax controls which were, in part,
responsible for the situation. Argentina's economy is also getting back
under control now.
I believe it is much better to have new competitors who
are business oriented, instead of gamblers without the slightest idea of
what this industry is all about. I have seen the same story repeating
in different areas of the world. The pity is that many hard working
people loose their patrimony because no one warned them or helped them
understand before they invested their money in a silly adventure. As
incredible as this may seem, some people are more willing to spend
hundreds of thousands of dollars in a buying a new diaper machine but
are afraid or even avoid spending a couple of thousand dollars in good
advice. There is a list of diaper industry consultants here:
diaper consultants.