Top Glove is a Malaysian rubber glove manufacturer. The company owns and operates 45 manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, Thailand, and China. It also has marketing offices in these countries as well as the United States, Germany, and Brazil.
History
The company was founded in Malaysia in 1991 by Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee Chai, with one production line and 100 staff. Wee Chai's parents are rubber plantation owners and traders. Top Glove has since become the world's largest manufacturer of gloves, commanding 26% of the worldmarket share.
Number of production lines: 700 lines as of 30 March 2020
Countries of export: 195 countries
Number of customers: 2,000
Top Glove was listed on the Bursa Saham Kuala Lumpurin 2001, and within a span of slightly more than a year, Top Glove Corporation Bhd's listing was promoted from the Second Board to the Main Board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange on May 16, 2002. On 28 June 2016, Top Glove was also listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange. As at 19 March 2020, Top Glove had a shareholder fund of RM2.6 billion and an annual turnover of about RM2.4 billion. In 2017 Top Glove announced that they would launch a new condom business in 2018 with a RM30 million investment. In April 2018, Top Glove concluded its acquisition of leading surgical glovemaker, Aspion Sdn Bhd, its biggest M&A to date, which will see Top Glove emerging the world's largest surgical glove manufacturer. In April 2020, the company announced that it would manufacture face masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Labour controversies
In December 2018, The Guardian reported that migrant workers were being allegedly subjected to forced labour, forced overtime, debt bondage, withheld wages and passport confiscation. The company has denied these allegations and claim that it has since improved its labour initiatives, which include the introduction of a zero cost recruitment policy. An investigation by Channel 4 News in June 2020 found that staff were living in cramped conditions, paid £1.08 an hour, forced to work overtime to meet the demand for gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic and could not adequately socially distance despite the company claiming appropriate measures were taken. Workers, many of whom are migrants, also claimed they paid up to $5000 in recruitment fees to secure employment, leaving them in debt bondage. Top Glove did not address any specific claims but called the investigation inaccurate.
