Yuhan-Kimberly Depend Underwear Enters Largest Incontinence Market, the United States

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Yuhan-Kimberly announced on the 29th that it has started exporting its flagship incontinence product, ‘Depend Underwear,’ to the United States. The U.S. is known as the world’s largest market for incontinence underwear, valued at approximately 1.5 trillion KRW. This is about 30 times the size of the domestic market for dedicated incontinence products, which is estimated at around 50 billion KRW annually (excluding facilities).

Yuhan-Kimberly plans to export male products to the U.S. by early next year through the sales network of its joint venture, Kimberly-Clark. The experience in the U.S. market, where social awareness of incontinence is open, is expected to provide a good opportunity for expanding export markets and developing strategic products in the future.

After equipping its Chungju plant in Chungbuk with mass production facilities for incontinence underwear last year, Yuhan-Kimberly has been steadily working to target both domestic and international markets.

Its flagship product, Depend Underwear, has driven growth in the domestic senior market, growing more than 20% over the past two years.

Overseas, the company has exported products to more than 10 countries including Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, Japan, and Hong Kong, achieving cumulative sales exceeding 60 billion KRW. With the recent development of the innovative product Depend LightFit, export opportunities are expected to expand further.

Depend LightFit is an ultra-slim product optimized for light incontinence, applying ThinTech Core technology to reduce thickness by 50% (compared to the company’s products based on internal absorption layer thickness tests), making it an innovative product closer to regular underwear. Before its release, 7 to 8 out of 10 people who hesitated to use regular underwear due to concerns about visibility under outerwear expressed willingness to use the new product.

A Yuhan-Kimberly Depend representative stated, “Although Korea’s dedicated incontinence products are relatively latecomers compared to major countries with mature markets, the product quality already has global competitiveness,” adding, “With the new facility investment last year securing flexibility for overseas demand, more opportunities are expected to arise in the future.”