Reckitt Benckiser invests heavily in sexual pleasure and snaps up lubricant brand K-Y Jelly

The first thing to know about the global condom market is that it’s no laughing matter.

Not only is the humble prophylactic a crucial weapon in the battle against sexually transmitted diseases and unfettered population growth, but it represents big business too.

Some studies estimate the industry will be worth £3.6billion by 2015, with 27billion condoms to be sold annually by 2015.

Protection: Some studies estimate the condom industry will be worth £3.6billion by 2015

Protection: Some studies estimate the condom industry will be worth £3.6billion by 2015

And so to the City, where everything – even the physical act of love – can be turned into money.

Reckitt Benckiser, the household goods firm behind products such as Cillit Bang and Nurofen, is buying lubricant brand K-Y Jelly.

The price is undisclosed but City analysts reckon £200million isn’t a bad shout.

 

It is part of a broader explosion in sexual wellbeing that has seen the likes of Boots and other drug stores clear space on their shelves for products that have brought pleasure into the retail mainstream.

But for all the razzmatazz around non-essential items dreamed up with only pleasure in mind, innovation in the deadly serious world of contraception is overdue a great leap forward.

The truth is that while the materials used to make them have changed, the design of the condom has altered very little from its earliest recorded use in Egypt in 1220 BC.

But a recent surge in efforts to make strides forward in this field have attracted the attention of some big names.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has doled out $100,000 each to 11 ideas for a ground-breaking condom innovation.

The winner will get $1million to fund further development.

The offers on show ranged from one made of collagen – extracted somewhat disconcertingly from cow tendons – to a shrink-to-fit product reminiscent of cling-film.

Another is made of graphene, a synthetic material 200 times stronger than steel. All of these are so much pie in the sky at present, says the boss of AIM-listed Futura Medical.

The firm yesterday raised £12million in a placing with existing and new investors arranged by broker N+1 Singer.

The money will help fund development of new products such as its CSD500 erectogenic condom, which is set to hit the market later this year.

The material is impregnated (no pun intended) with nitro-glycerine, which promotes longer-lasting sexual efficacy on the part of the wearer.

The idea is to reduce the number of people who dispense with condoms due to a fear that they interfere with performance.

‘Man is always searching for three things: eternal youth, eternal wealth and a permanent erection,’ says Futura boss James Barder, with a face as straight as they come.

‘There is clear evidence that 30 per cent of men, when they wear a condom, don’t always maintain an erection and then don’t always wear a condom. We’re looking to encourage greater use.’

Greater use ought not to be a problem in the grand scheme of things. Sales growth in the condom market is about 6pc per annum according to Futura, a healthy pace by the standards of most industries.

At Reckitt, fourth quarter sales were up 7 per cent largely due to the growth of its innovative Real Feel polyisoprene condom.

China, as is the case with many things, looks likely to be the industry’s engine room of growth in the coming years.

The government in Bejing, with its one child policy, already buys some 2bn condoms annually for free distribution.

In 2012, some 9.55billion condoms were sold in China, up 10 per cent year on year. And with the Gates’ money on offer, competition to be the ‘next big thing’ in this industry is huge.

Futura boss James Barder is sceptical though. ‘These things are donkey’s years from approval,’ he says. ‘One of the drivers of condom innovation is to encourage usage.

‘But the second factor, which is very important in that buyers tend to be younger generation, is cost.
‘It’s all very well having a concept, but it has to be practical too.’

Futura already has licensing deals in place with major players such as Trojan (with 69 per cent market share in the US) and Mates, owned by Australia’s Ansell.

It had an agreement in place with global market leader Durex, before it was bought by Reckitt. That has since fallen by the wayside.

The snub from Reckitt could yet prove to be a bad move on the blue-chip giant’s part.

Excitement around Futura has prompted speculation of a £2-a-share bid for a company that closed last night at just 63.25p.

And if the CSD500 wins fans among male users, Reckitt may find that it has kissed goodbye to its best hope of grabbing a bigger slice of the US market.

Durex may dominate global sales, with about 30 per cent, but it is a relative tiddler in the US, where Trojan – owned by Church & Dwight – has a 69 per cent share.

There is market share to be won in the US and growth to be had in Asia. The condom brand that comes up with the design of the future may just grab both prizes at once.

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