Sat, Apr 05, 2003 page12

• 3M, Blackmores, Tongrentang arm Asians for SARS

  • BLOOMBERG
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  Mandy Wong took a day off work as an information technology worker to stock up on cleaning fluids and Chinese herbs, her weapons of choice against a respiratory disease that's killed 17 in the city.

  "I need to take extra precautions," said Wong, keeping her surgical mask on as she paid a sales clerk HK$528 (US$68). "I have an 8-month-old baby at home."

  Wong was among dozens at billionaire Li Ka-shing's Watsons drugstore in the downtown Prince's Building buying latex gloves, masks, vitamins and household cleansers to protect against a virus that has infected 734 people in the city of 6.8 million.

  

  Representatives of the Confucius Society in Hong Kong greet each other in front of a portrait of the ancient Chinese philosopher yesterday as they urged people to abandon shaking hands and return to the traditional Chinese way of greeting one another in an effort to prevent the spread of disease, noteably severe acute respiratory syndrome.

  PHOTO: REUTERS

  Similar scenes are common in Singapore, and are spreading to other Asian cities along with the disease, leading to an explosion of sales for companies from St. Paul, Minnesota-based 3M Co to Balgowah, Australia-based Blackmores Ltd. The boom contrasts with slumping sales at restaurants, bars and hotels, which threaten to derail economic rebounds in the region.

  "Everyone will be more careful about their health, so companies that produce medical-related goods will benefit," said Belinda Yu, who manages US$216 million in funds at Jih Sun Securities Investment Trust Co in Taiwan.

  3M said orders in Hong Kong jumped 20 times in the last three weeks and the company will import a million masks.

  "Our US plants are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week to catch up with orders," said Samuel Fung, business manager at 3M's Hong Kong unit. "Demand, especially from hospitals, will probably stay up as it doesn't look like this disease will be over soon."

  Shares of Medtecs International Corp, a Singapore-based maker of surgical masks, are up about 40 percent since the outbreak began. Japan Vilene Co, the nation's second-biggest maker of protective masks, rose 51 percent this week. 3M stock is up 8.6 percent this year and 2.6 percent this week. Blackmores shares, down 7.3 percent this year, are up 0.9 percent this week.

  The 189-outlet Mannings drugstore chain, owned by Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd, has sold about half a million masks in Hong Kong this week. When they restock, they sell out again within an hour, Chief Executive Caroline Mak said. Vitamin C sales rose by as much as four times.

  "People hope they will be at least less vulnerable to the disease, since we haven't found a definite solution," said Eric Cheung, a pharmacist at the Mannings store in Central, a city-center district.

  Sales of vitamins made by Blackmores in Singapore have surged more than 20 percent, according to Benjamin Lee, who represents the vitamin company in the island state.

  Hutchison Whampoa Ltd's Watsons chain has to send deliveries to its 135 Hong Kong stores up to four times a day, compared with daily before the outbreak began almost a month ago, spokeswoman Kitty Chan said. Store managers replenish shelves every hour with 3M face masks, Blackmores vitamins and Isochem International Pte's Germ Killer antiseptic cleaner.

  For some, masks alone don't do the job. Hutchison's Fortress electronics store on Queens Road said 20 air purifiers that normally would have sat on shelves for weeks went out of the door in a single day, according to Thomas Chan, assistant sales manager.

  Part of the panic is caused by the lack of a treatment for the disease and only partial knowledge on how it is spread. A total of 2,270 cases and 79 deaths from Canada to Singapore had been reported to the WHO as of Thursday.

  Hong Kong doctors developed a treatment with ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc's anti-viral drug ribavirin and steroids that officials claim is 95 percent effective if administered soon after exposure to the disease, called severe acute respiratory syndrome.

  While Chinese traditional medicine also doesn't claim to have found a cure, there are many products designed to increase the body's resistance.

  Beijing Tongrentang Group, one of China's oldest medicine makers, introduced a HK$27 remedy made of eight herbs, which it says help prevent flu and pneumonia.

  "It sells well," said Li Yanhua, a sales representative at Tongrentang's store in Hong Kong's Central district.

  "Some people ordered a dozen bags at a time. It will not cure the disease, but helps build up the body's immune system."
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