It's A Wrap

Never ones for blushing in the line of duty, two titans of the condom manufacturing world – Goh Miah Kiat of Karex Bhd and Davin Wedel of Global Protection Corp – share their reflections on their 20-year collaboration in the protection industry.

It all started with a glow-in-the-dark condom and a spontaneous trip to Tioman Island – well, that’s the condensed version of the story behind the partnership between Karex Bhd, the world’s largest manufacturer of male latex condoms, and Global Protection Corp, the parent company of ONE Condoms.

An aim to increase condom usage (a mere five per cent of the world’s male population wear them) and to make condoms the preferred method of contraception has been the shared mission of Goh Miah Kiat, CEO of Karex, and Davin Wedel, CEO of Global Protection Corp, for the past two decades.

“With our values aligned in terms of always trying to surprise and delight our customers, there’s so much opportunity for us to grow when we look at making the whole consumer experience better while using condoms,” says Goh. “That’s our motivation: to get more and more people using them. There hasn’t been anything crazy that we’ve not spoken about in the past, even on the first day when Davin arrived with his glow-in-the dark condom. It was crazy, but we made it all work.”

COVER SESSIONS

Looking at their respective histories, Goh and Wedel couldn’t have had more different introductions to the condom industry. Goh (who his friends and colleagues also refer to as ‘MK’) was very much born into the business, having grown up helping to pack prophylactics – not that he knew what they were as a small child – at his family’s condom factory in Klang. Following the unexpected death of his father, he found himself tasked with the responsibility of leading the sales and marketing side of the company when he was fresh out of university.