KUALA LUMPUR: Komarkcorp Bhd's subsidiary Komark Mask (M) Sdn Bhd has today received ISO accreditation from the regulators.
The accreditation confirms its premises, facilities and manufacturing standards are in accordance with the requirements of the International Quality Management System for Medical Devices.
Komarkcorp said it would now be a fully accredited manufacturer of disposable surgical face masks, and would look to accelerate its rollout plan to increase production and launch its own brand.
Komarkcorp, which announced its diversification into face masks months ago, would accelerate to push of its own brand of masks into local and regional markets, utilising its silo of operations in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia to capture the current rising demand.
With the ISO accreditation including personnel protective equipment (PPE) manufacturing, Komarkcorp said it would also explore the extension of its diversification to include PPE manufacturing.
This would cater to the current surge in demand due to the third wave of Covid-19 in Malaysia.
The company said it was also looking to double the current capacity of 3.5 million masks per month by end of November, with the installation of two additional machine lines.
This will bring its total to four lines.
The remaining lines are earmarked for the December installation.
The global market for face masks was valued at US$4.4 billion in 2019, with its growth expected to hit US$31.8 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 24.5 per cent over the forecasted period, according to Polaris Market Research.
Komarkcorp said demand was expected to pick up drastically with the Covid-19 pandemic expected to reach new levels during the coming winter months.
Komarkcorp had announced plans to install up to 30 face masks production lines within the next 24 months, particularly three-ply surgical face masks and KN95 masks with targeted annual production capacity of up to 522 million tree-ply surgical face masks and 120 million KN95 face masks.
Group chief executive officer Koh Chie Jooi said there was a concerted push to obtain supply of non-China manufactured face masks with the ongoing trade war between the US and its allies against China.
"This represents a fantastic opportunity for Komarkcorp to redefine itself as a global player with Malaysian- made masks of exceptional quality, being exported to Western economies," he said in a statement today.
Komarkcorp will also immediately explore the implementation of PPE manufacturing to add on as a horizontal diversification exercise.
"Logically, the demand for face masks will also flow alongside demand for PPE and we will look into adding that product into our portfolio for a bundled disposable medical equipment solution for local and export markets," Koh added.