Clorox disinfecting wipes toughen up with PGI's new Spinlace Technology.

The industry's leading disinfecting wipes just put on some extra muscle as Clorox continues to improve on its successful formula in its highly popular all purpose cloth cleaners. The company has incorporated Polymer Group, Inc.'s (PGI) Spinlace Technology into its newest wipes in an effort to provide its customers with an increasingly high-quality product.

Despite having a commanding lead in the disinfecting wipes category for almost 10 years, Clorox continues to innovate and put the best product it can on the shelves. PGI's Spinlace Technology provided just that opportunity for the leading cleaning company as the wipes now feature a thicker, textured wipe designed to withstand more use and clean more effectively.

Spinlace is a nonwoven material developed by PGI to add strength, absorbency, texturing and other performance characteristics to the original cleaning wipes. Clorox discovered this material and decided to give it a chance and improve its already successful disinfecting wipes at the same time. These wipes mark the first time that PGI's Spinlace technology is being used commercially.

"With the new technology, we were able to offer consumers a thicker wipe that cleans better than our earlier wipes. Consumer testing indicated to us this product is preferred versus our previous product and as such, it is being well received in the market," said Clorox company spokeswoman Vicki Friedman.

If the new wipes perform anything like the previous version of Clorox wipes have in the past, then both Clorox and PGI are in good shape. According to Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), a Chicago-based market research firm, Clorox Cloth All Purpose Cleaners had just under half of the total sales of cloth all-purpose cleaners for the 52-week period ended June 15, 2008. Clorox's sales of cloth all-purpose cleaners checked in at $109.5 million of a total $223 million market for cloth all-purpose cleaners.

"Based on the positive response this breakthrough technology has quickly received in household cleaning wipes, we are excited to be expanding these fabrics into the European marketplace and into other categories," said Veronica Hagen, chief executive officer, PGI. "Spinlace fabrics answer a critical demand in the market for a new category of high-performance, value-added materials."

By Keith Jacobsen

contributing editor