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bne October 2020 Central Europe I 39
A new growth area in a clean new world
Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
Hungary-based producer of anti- bacterial coatings Resysten was expanding steadily before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused demand for its product to explode.
The pandemic this year brought
an immediate hike in demand for Resysten’s product – along with demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), facemasks, hand sanitisers and anything people could use to protect themselves and others against infection. This saw factories being converted to roll out hygiene products, while companies already in the sector scrambled to up production to meet soaring demand.
CEO Shajjad Rizvi tells bne IntelliNews that even once a vaccine for COVID-19 is found, given the raised awareness about the threat of infection Resysten still expects hospitals, public transport operators and businesses to use the product to guard themselves against future viral outbreaks.
Resysten’s photocatalytic coating system is based on titanium dioxide, whose anti-bacterial and microbial benefits were discovered by a Japanese professor back in the 1970s. More recently, a collective study by multiple universities discovered that it could be used to protect surfaces; the process was based on a photocatalytic reaction that produced free radicals, killing anything on a surface.
Resysten was founded to commercialise this discovery, and further work was carried out to develop a product that lasts longer – the company guarantees its coatings for a year – and in very low lighting conditions. It works on all surfaces, including glass, ceramics, metals and textiles, and tests have shown its kill rate is as good as any standardised disinfectant, says Rizvi in an interview over Zoom.
The company’s initial clients were in public transportation – it coated 27km of escalator rails in the Budapest metro, for
example – as operators wanted to protect travellers from a flu epidemic. From there, Resysten moved into working with food processing companies to protect against infections, in particular e-coli.
At the same time, Resysten was going through the lengthy process to have its product approved for use in hospitals
in Hungary. Just three years after the company was founded, surfaces in every regional major hospital in Hungary had been coated.
According to Rizvi, this “had a dramatic effect on hospital-acquired infections”. He quotes a representative of one hospital who said that once the product had been applied he could
see a “complete reversing of upward trend of deaths from hospital-acquired infections”. Such infections kill many more people yearly than COVID-19.
The area coated by Resysten rose steadily year by year from 5,000 square metres initially to around 30,000 sqm pre-pandemic, with the company typically coating areas touched by multiple people such as door handles, stair and escalator rails and counters.
In the commercial sector it has coated 6,500 shopping trolleys for Metro Cash & Carry and the counters in mobile phone
operator Telekom’s shops, as well as working with car manufacturer Audi.
“When COVID happened, we already had a reputation in Hungary and started getting calls from gyms, offices, retailers...” says Rizvi. This year, the company expects to coat around 130,000 sqm of surfaces in Hungary alone.
Resysten is also exploring international expansion, a long process that involves securing regulatory approvals in each country and finding local partners.
In addition to its headquarters in Torokbalint, Hungary, the company is setting up a second office in London to work with countries outside the EU.
Since the onset of the pandemic, Resysten has been “getting calls from all over the world,” says Rizvi. He points out that with the COVID-inspired demand and its references, including from the Hungarian operations of international blue chips, Resysten expects to have a slew of international clients as soon as it gets approval from regulators.
“If you consider the size of Hungary and the other countries where we have deals and partners in place, we’re looking at coating well over 1m sqm once the other countries come online,” he said.
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