USA TODAY International Edition
As US salons reopen, sales of Barbicide are booming
A pandemic is a good time to be in the disinfectant business.
That blue liquid that barbers and hairstylists drop used combs in between services – Barbicide – is selling more than ever.
Milwaukee- based King Research makes the blue Barbicide disinfectant and other cleaning products under the BlueCo Brands label.
Salons and barbershops started ordering more Barbicide and other cleaning products “about the same time the world ran out of toilet paper,” King Research President Alan Murphy said. Amid heightened concern for cleanliness and sterilization, King Research is experiencing unprecedented growth for its cleaning products.
The company moved from working five days a week to a seven- day production schedule and can still barely keep up with demand. It added lines in its mostly automated manufacturing facility.
It streamlined production to sell only one product – half- gallon jugs of Barbicide. This year, the company has sold more half- gallon jugs of Barbicide than in all of 2019, Murphy said. The company has shipped products from its facility in Milwaukee every day during the crisis, Murphy said.
The coronavirus pandemic caused unprecedented growth for the disinfectant company. Barbicide was ready to grow about 12% this year, Murphy said. Sales in March, April and May have been about four times higher than in the same months last year.
“I don’t think that’s real, long- term growth,” Murphy said. “I think it will settle.” The products are sold in all 50 states, Canada, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. The majority of sales are within the USA.
BlueCo Brands include Barbicide, Lucky Tiger, Triple Lanolin and ShipShape, among others. More than 120 people work in the office, manufacturing and warehousing operations for Barbicide, Murphy said. Barbicide was founded in 1947 in New York. The company moved to Milwaukee in 2006.